Operation Nyota
by Pinerug
Summary: A few years on from the end of Our Girl, Molly is on a training exercise in Kenya. How is she finding life in he army now? Contains swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**This story has been knocking around in my head for a while, and this week I finally found the time to start writing it. At the moment I have about 4 or 5 chapters planned, but it might go to more. Finding time to write isn't always easy, so if you do enjoy this please bear with me if the updates don't come as fast as you'd like. I have a job plus a family that need clean clothes and food etc. **

**Time wise its roughly 5 years after the end of OG, Molly and Charles are a settled couple, Molly is still in the army, still in RAMC and is working her way up the ranks. Charles has left the Army and is working for a veterans' charity.**

**Any comments or reviews will be appreciated. Author's notes at the bottom. Thanks to jenmc for beta reading and general encouragement**

The sun was beating down relentlessly on the dusty red earth, tufts of dry grass and small scrubby thorn bushes stretched across the plain to the smooth humps of kopjes in the hazy distance. Dark rocks dotted the plain, absorbing the heat of the sun and blasting out even more in return. Under the meagre shade cast by a small spindly tree a group of soldiers sat, relaxing as best they could. They sat mostly in silence fiddling idly with blades of grass, swirling patterns in the dust with their fingers, occasionally glancing upwards at the slow progression of the sun across the sky.

One of their number was a petite brown haired woman, Corporal Molly Dawes. She was gazing up at the thin canopy of sparse leaves in the tree, watching the sunlight flicker through the branches, when a small gaggle of speckled brown birds landed above them. She watched as they jumped from branch to branch, chattering noisily, then took off and flew away, leaving the quiet shush of the wind in the branches and the far off chirrup and hum of insects.

She delved into the right hand thigh pocket of her combats and drew out a letter, the thin blue airmail paper flapped in the slight breeze. Smoothing the paper against her knees she read the looping scrawl.

_Dearest Molly_

_It was so lovely to hear your voice this morning. The telephone coverage must have improved since I was there. I'm glad to hear that the exercise is going well, you should be so proud of yourself, I know I'm proud of you._

_We're all doing well. Sam is over this weekend, I'm sorry I couldn't shift him from his pit to say hello when you called, it appears that we have well and truly hit the teenage years. I can barely get more than a grunt out of him that early in the morning. He was selected for the U14's match yesterday so I went to watch before we came home. He did well, he has all the makings of a good fly half, although if he carries on growing at this rate he'll be looking at something in the second row. Sorry, rugby talk! Rebecca was there with John and they send their love. She's looking much better than when we saw her last, she says the worst of the sickness is over now she's hit the second trimester. I don't remember her having it this bad with Sam, she's convinced that it will be a girl this time. Poor Sam doesn't know whether to be proud to be a big brother or mortified that he now has proof that his mother has a sex life!_

_I'm down to London this week to talk at a fundraiser for the charity, and I've also managed to swing a meeting at the MoD to discuss our latest grant application. You know there's nothing I like more these days than reminding some stick up his arse Brigadier about the Armed Services Covenant. As I will be staying overnight I thought I would take a day in lieu and visit your parents. I promised to take over some of Sam's old stuff to Belinda, she's been nagging me about needing different books for her coursework. Last time we spoke she was getting a bit frustrated with Bella, she's got the boot from her latest job and is hanging around the house all day. I told her my experience is only good for getting another couple of kms out of squaddies, I haven't got the faintest idea where to start with a moody teenage girl. Maybe you could drop her a line smooth things over next time you get online?_

_Mum and Dad are over in a bit for lunch so had better crack on with the roast._

_Later_

_Well, the house is very quiet now with everyone gone. I thought I should finish up so I can get this in the post first thing. Mum &amp; Dad send their love, we had a lovely walk after lunch, then it was home so Sam could finish off some prep before they dropped him at school on their way back to Bath. The place always feels more empty after a busy weekend. I've got a bit of that Sunday evening, back to school feeling myself and I'm missing you terribly right now. I can only imagine the great time you are having out there. I remember my time on training exercises in Kenya as being a bloody good laugh. Of course I had Archie and all his local knowledge which helped, especially pulling pranks on the new Second Lieutenants fresh out of Sandhurst._

_While I'm on the subject of Archie, he and Dawn would love to see you when you are out there. I've given them the dates I think you're most likely to be on your break before your week of community work. Perhaps you could contact them and fix something up? Let me know if you need their number. I hear Beck is out there, I'm sure he'd put in a good word if you were to ask the CO for a few nights off base, especially to see Archie. They go way back. _

_Time to turn in, I love you very much my darling and can't wait to see you._

_Ever yours,_

_C_

_xxxx_

Molly smiled to herself. She loved Charles' old fashioned insistence on sending her letters when she was away from home. She was more of a Skype person, but he said nothing could come close to a letter, and you couldn't take a Skype call out of your pocket and read it in the middle of the night. He was right about that. She would read and re-read her letters from Charles until she was worried they would fall apart.

Only Charles would look back on trekking miles in the blistering heat, sleeping on stony ground and bivvying down with a bunch of smelly squaddies as a 'bloody good laugh'. Still, she could well imagine that his friend Archie would have made it fun. He was very much a practical joker, always playing pranks and taking the piss. She'd never experienced the army version of Archie, he'd left before she and Charles met, but she had heard all the stories over the years. She found it hard to imagine that the stern faced Captain of her first tour and the laid back joker that was Archie would ever get along, let alone be best friends. It was a long friendship, cemented through boarding school, university, Sandhurst, two tough tours of Afghan and a divorce apiece. She knew that there were moments of great pain and loss in that time that they would never talk of, even to each other. Despite being a continent apart they had the sort of friendship that they could pick up after months of no contact.

Molly had first met Archie shortly after her second tour of Afghan. She and Charles were in their first flush of romance, and Archie was making a trip over to the UK to be introduced to his new fiancee's family. Dawn jokingly referred to herself as an 'import'; she had come to Kenya to teach for a couple of years at one of the private boarding schools, and had met Archie at a party in Nairobi one half term. Archie couldn't actually remember meeting Dawn that first time. He had ended up at the party of an old acquaintance purely by accident of being in town that night and needing somewhere to crash. His first marriage had broken down 3 months before and he had spent all afternoon drowning his sorrows in a crate of beer.

A very drunk Archie was last seen by partygoers falling backwards off a wall into a flowerbed. While everyone had roared with laughter Dawn, who had been chatting to him at the time, had picked him up, got him into bed and sat up with him, making sure he came to no harm in the night. Instead of being grateful for the care she had shown him, the next morning Archie had called her a 'fucking stiff', and had been met with a similarly colourful response from a fuming Dawn.

Charles had taken great pleasure in pointing out that she had been right to call him 'an ungrateful little turd' and that he really should apologise. So it was a week later that Archie had tracked down his Florence Nightingale and had sheepishly apologised for getting drunk and thanked her for being so kind to look after him. He had then rather spoilt the apology by expecting her to put him up for the night as he was hundreds of kilometres from home and it was too late to drive back that night, but somehow he had wormed his way into her affections and six months later they were engaged.

Molly would love to see them, but wondered if it was the right time. This was her first major training exercise since her promotion. Keeping in with the platoon, even when it was at the end of their exercise was important. She didn't want to be taken for someone who wasn't a team player. Nearing seven years in the army she was aware that the need to make the right impression never stopped.

Her relationship with Charles could sometimes be a hindrance to that, even five years after he had resigned his commission. By the simple fact of them being a couple she knew a number of officers that he was friends with and had served with. As far as some people were concerned this gave her a foot in both camps, and they made life that little bit harder for her. She had been cautious about going forward for her promotion to Corporal, which had frustrated Charles who could only see her ability to the job, but she had stuck to her guns through some fierce rows with him. It was important to her that she was seen to progress when the time was right and she worried that a fast track promotion would be seen as a result of who she knew.

In the end she knew Charles would support her, whatever her choices, and that he would give her a kick up the arse if he thought she needed it too. It was a mutual arrangement and one that made for a strong and happy relationship.

As she returned the letter to her pocket a crackly voice over the radio warned them of the approach of their sections. Molly and her fellow corporals stood, dusting themselves down as they scanned the horizon. Through the hazy shimmer they could make out a slow moving cloud of dust, which slowly formed into the sight of 30 or so soldiers running towards them. The poor sods looked knackered and Molly noticed a few of her section in the group of stragglers.

"Not far now," she shouted "come on, dig in!" At the back of the group she spotted one of her section, Private Aston. She was moving slowly, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. She looked done in. Molly headed down the track, encouraging each soldier as she passed them. Eventually she drew level with Private Aston and walked alongside her. "What do you see ahead, Aston?" she asked. Aston glanced across at her, barely able to draw breath, let alone talk. "See them lot, that's your section. You gotta keep up with them, you can't let yourself get separated. When you do you leave yourself vulnerable. They might need you, and you really need them."

Aston wiped the sweat from her face and kept on going. "What would you do if one of them was shot? They could bleed out just waiting for you to catch up. Come on, give me more, keep up" Molly picked up the pace, glancing back, trying to urge the Private on for the last few yards. She could tell she was pissing her off, but she wasn't here to hold her hand and be her friend, she was here to teach her how to be a medic and a soldier. To her credit Aston didn't complain and kept up, all the time Molly could practically feel the daggers the girl was shooting her.

They reached the rest of the platoon, now mostly laying sprawled on the ground, their chests heaving and gasping. "Right you lot, that's this exercise finished. Congratulations, you survived. Let's take 10 while we wait for transport to get to us. Make sure you hydrate, but just small sips for now or else it will come straight back up."

Molly wandered over to her fellow Corporals to check on the ETA if the transport to get them back to base.

"Fuck. That fucking bastard wanker" exclaimed Corporal Jones

"What's up?"

"Transport aren't coming. That fucking weasel Harris has sent them back to camp, seems to think our sections can walk back. What a tosser. He probably read it in his big book of being a weasley wanker his gran gave him for Christmas."

"He sent them back? Jesus. Who wants to tell this lot? Bagsy not me."

"It's not going to be me. Besides, your new in the job, you need the experience."

"Bollocks." She glanced over her shoulder "At least they're too knackered to actually kill me. Best get this over and done with."

She made her way over to the heap of sweaty bodies, some of whom had started to stir.

"Right lads, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that thanks to a fuck up in transport we have a lovely stroll back to camp with more opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery" The news was met with a series of groans, and from those who still had the energy, some swearing, "The bad news is that when we get back Corp Jones here will be spending the evening telling you tales of when live firing exercises go wrong, so you had better hope that no one has run out of pro-plus, cos you're all going to need it." Jones stuck two fingers up at Molly, and she chuckled.

"Right, we leave in five. Any of you needing top ups of water come and see me."

Ten minutes later everyone was heading towards camp, three of four loose groups making their way across the plain, heading south. Molly tried to work her way between each group, checking on the members of her section. As she reached the final group she noticed Private Aston was not wearing her pack. Casting around she could see it was being carried by another Private, Jacobs.

"Aston, Jacobs, over here" she stopped and motioned for them to come over. "Jacobs, I take it that's Aston's pack?" He nodded. "Put it down and carry on" Jacobs gave a weak smile and a shrug of his shoulders to his friend and hurried to join his section.

"I don't want to know whether he offered or if you asked" said Molly to a surly looking Private Aston. "You carry your own pack. If you can't then I suggest you talk to the MO when you get back to camp. The section only works if everyone pulls their weight. Now, put that on. We're nearly back."

"Ma'am"

Aston shrugged on her pack, trying hard to hide her discomfort. She turned and made to catch up with the rest of the section. Molly stood on the dusty track and watched her. "Ahh, shit" she said to herself quietly before walking towards camp.

* * *

**Author's notes**

**This fic is set in Kenya. The British army have an agreement with the Kenyan government which allows them to run 6 week training exercises in an area of Kenya's Northern Frontier District (NFD), North of Mt Kenya. This was key in training troops for Afghanistan, as it has a similar terrain and climate. The army has a small permanent base in Nanyuki and also Nairobi which provides support to the visiting battalions.**

**Visiting battalions also carry out work to help local communities as part of their time on exercise, such as building or repairing bridges, schools and clinics.**

**While I have tried as much as possible to base what I'm writing on fact I have no experience of military life and I will inevitably deviate from reality to suit my story. Any glaring military errors or flights of fancy are mine. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for your reviews and comments, it does make my day to know others are enjoying this story. And thank you for your patience in waiting for this chapter. I've had a lot of fun writing this, I hope you like it.**

There were advantages to having legs as long as Charles James'. They were hell to accommodate on planes and trains, but they made short work of the walk from Upton Park tube station to Rochford Close. He hadn't got out of the habit of what Molly called 'striding', especially in London when his main aim was to get out of the place as quickly as he could. He was so used to making this trip with her he could almost hear her voice on his ear "Bleedin' hell Charles, can't you slow down? Not all of us have legs as long as you!"

It was early November and the weather had turned noticeably autumnal. Piles of leaves collected against the kerb and in the corners, piling up against wheelie bins and choking the gutters. He made his way down the length of the Boleyn Ground, turning the corner past the rows of shops and maisonettes towards the Dawes' house. As he drew nearer he could see Dave leaning over the balcony, slowly drawing on his cigarette. Charles raised his hand in greeting and Dave gave him an almost imperceptible nod. Dave wasn't given to displays of affection. He had once patted Charles in the shoulder; Molly had assured him that such physicality from her Dad was almost unheard of.

Charles made his way up the stairs and towards number 2.

"Good to see you Dave"

"Charles"

"Is Belinda back yet?"

"Any minute now mate. Cuppa?"

"That would be lovely"

Dave took one last drag on his cigarette, threw the butt on the ground and walked into the house.

"Bella!" he called up the stairs, "Charles is here. Stick the kettle on will you, and I'll have one while you're at it." He made his way into the lounge and sat down.

After a few moments there was a thump from above, followed by a heavy footed clump, clump, clump, as Bella made her way down the stairs.

"What did your last slave die of?" she scowled at her dad. "Wotcha Charlie-boy"

"Hi Bella"

"Tea?"

"Please" Tea was a safer bet at the Dawes' house.

Charles followed Bella into the kitchen and watched as she got out 3 mugs and put the kettle on.

"Your mum said the last job didn't work out. Anything else in the pipeline?"

"Nah, the jobcentre keep on at me to apply for stuff, but it's all wiping wrinkly arses or working at the supermarket."

"What about college?"

"I'm not going back to school."

"Well, there's always the army" he said with a grin.

"Dream on Charlie."

The kettle clicked off and Bella poured boiling water into each mug.

"Could I ask a favour Bella?" asked Charles

"It'll cost you"

"I wouldn't have expected anything less. I wanted a word with your parents, I thought we might go to the pub on the corner for lunch. I don't want Belinda to have to rush off and collect the kids from school. Would you mind doing it?"

"How much?"

"Ten pounds do you?"

"Twenty"

"Fifteen?"

Bella thought for a while as she fished the tea bags out of the mugs and left them in a soggy heap on the counter. "Alright. What do you need to talk to mum and dad about?"

"Nothing to do with you" he motioned to the cups on the counter, "Need a hand with that?"

"No, it's alright." She turned to Charles and held out her hand. "Pay up then"

He handed a couple of notes to Bella. "Don't spend it all in the same pub"

"Ha-ha"

She took her mug and went upstairs. As she passed the living room door Dave called out "Oi, where's my tea? A man could die of thirst in this house"

Charles took the tea into the living room and passed him a mug.

"Bloody kids" mumbled Dave.

Charles sat down and took a sip of his tea. He tried not to grimace as he realised Bella had sugared it. He put it to one side.

"Everything ok here then?" he asked hoping Belinda would be home soon, Dave wasn't exactly the chatty type.

"Yeah, Belinda's on me case. Wants me to help out more round the house and that. She's always working away on some coursework."

Charles nodded and decided to keep his thoughts to himself, but Dave was getting into his stride.

"She expects me to put the washing on. I haven't a scooby how to work the machine. Don't suppose you know."

"I could take a look"

"Great. It's just in the kitchen. She put the clothes in, says the powder is under the sink"

Charles sighed and stood up "No time like the present" Dave didn't move. "Come on, we can't do it from in here"

Dave grudgingly stood up and followed Charles into the kitchen. They located the powder and Charles showed Dave which part of the drawer to put it into. While he was busy measuring out the fabric conditioner Charles surreptitiously tipped his tea down the sink and washed the mug up, balancing it on top of the already full drainer.

They were crouched in front of the machine with Charles showing Dave how to select the washing cycle when Belinda came home. Walking into the kitchen she spotted them. "It's Chas and Dave" she exclaimed "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" she giggled at her own joke.

"I thought you broke your rabbit" mumbled Dave

"Yeah it died from overuse!" she started gigging again.

Charles was blushing slightly as he stood to greet her. She reached up on her tiptoes and gave him a big hug. "Bet there's no need for a rabbit with you about is there Charlie?" Charles blushed more and Belinda kept on laughing.

She took off her coat and moved over to the kettle. "Cuppa?" she asked.

"No thanks, I've just had one" Charles replied.

"Go on and sit down" she said, bustling them out of the kitchen.

After few minutes of uncomfortable silence with Dave in the living room Belinda joined them, passing another cup of tea to Dave.

"So then", she turned to Charles "everything ok?" She tried to hide the look of the concern on her face.

"Everything is fine" replied Charles, giving her a reassuring smile. "I heard from Molly just the other day. She sounded like she was really enjoying it. It's a fantastic opportunity for her. Not everyone gets the chance to go out there."

Belinda smiled and visibly relaxed.

"I wondered if you fancied going out for lunch" Charles said. "Give you a break Belinda, after all I invited myself over. How's the food at the pub on the corner?"

"You don't need to do that"

"I want to. I'm sure Bella would be happy to pick the kids up from school, so there's no need to rush"

"Sounds good to me" said Dave

"That would be lovely Charles, thank you" said Belinda, beaming.

* * *

Molly looked down into the murky brown water swirling around in her mug. She gave it one last stir before removing the tea bag and adding a splash more milk. Picking up her tea she made her way to an empty table on the shady side of the mess tent. The mess was sited in a small area of higher ground and it caught what little breeze there was. She felt the air catch the wispy tendrils of hair that were escaping from her plait and smoothed her hands over her head in an attempt to tame them.

She looked across the camp at the rows and rows of tents, neatly lined up, one behind another. To the left was an open, dusty area which was known as the parade ground, but was now doubling as a football pitch with two groups having a kick about. Around the periphery of the ground stood more tents, khaki canvas that had seen better days, bleached out and wearing thin from the intense sunlight, the worst covered with awnings of shade netting. These made up the operational and logistics command base for the camp, which when it was full accommodated up to 600 troops drawn from regiments across the British army.

Right now it was relatively quiet, 400 or so engineers, infantry and intelligence corps were out in the bush on exercises. Molly, belonging to a smaller contingent from the RAMC was back in camp following their last exercise, having a down day to recover before heading off tomorrow for a live firing exercise at Archer's Post. Well, a sort of down day. She had still insisted on running an early morning PT session, her niggling doubts about the fitness levels and lack of acclimatisation of some of her section meant that she was keeping the pressure up.

She also had a series of debriefs and meetings to attend throughout the day, reflecting on the outcomes of the last exercise and identifying areas to work on in preparation for the final event, a 2 day night and day battle simulation to test all the units taking part in the training exercise. Molly looked wistfully across at the football match on the parade ground, remembering what it was like to be a lowly private, the long periods of nothing to do between patrols or exercises.

She had just come from a particularly trying debrief led by Lt. Harris. Fresh out of Sandhurst and positively dripping behind the ears Harris was the sort of newly commissioned officer that gave them a bad name. With a self assurance that bordered on the pathological, he was obviously nowhere to be seen when they were handing out humility or the ability to take advice from those more junior than himself. Worst of all he was the sort to promise one thing and then withdraw it at the last minute. Pulling transport at the end of the last exercise was just the latest in a long line of last minute changes he had actioned leaving his corporals to deal with the fall out.

Molly really didn't like the man. He never seemed to pass up an opportunity to sneer at her. She was used to people taking the mickey out of her height or her accent; this was the army, if you didn't hear any piss taking or banter you started checking pulses. Harris seemed different. The comments he made might seem to an outsider as just more banter, but somehow Molly never felt they were delivered with any joking or humour behind them. Instead they often sounded like he really meant to offend or belittle her.

This afternoon's debrief was a case in point. They had been sat in the ops tent discussing the last exercise. Corporal Jones, to his credit had raised the issue of the lack of transport. This was dismissed by Harris as unimportant. He even suggested it was good for morale. He then decided to single out Molly for criticism. "What were you doing giving out extra water, Dawes?"

"The exercise was over, Sir." she replied. "I didn't think it would do any harm."

"You didn't think it would do any harm, or you just didn't think, _Corporal_?"

Molly looked straight ahead, not blinking. She knew better than to show the anger she felt. Harris was apparently just warming up.

"They won't thank you for you mollycoddling" he carried on. "How do you expect them to take responsibility for themselves if you're constantly wiping their arses for them? _Oh, I'm sorry mister Taliban, can you just stop shooting at me while my corporal fills up my canteen? I'm feeling a bit thirsty. _This isn't a family holiday in Butlins Dawes. Oh I forgot, you've upgraded to Thomas Cook these days, haven't you?"

"Sir" came Molly's impassive reply.

She was absolutely fuming with rage by the time they were dismissed. Harris had laid into each of them in turn, finding fault with their planning, their attitudes, and when he couldn't find any more faults with their performance he started complaining about the tidiness of their uniforms.

"Jeez, that man is a grade A tosser" said Corporal Jones as they made their way out of the briefing.

"You don't need to tell me"

"What was all that '_Oh mister Taliban'_ shit all about?"

"Buggered if I know. As if he has the faintest idea what being shot at was like. I was being shot at by the Taliban when he was sitting at home waiting for his pubes to grow."

"Aww, that's my little Molly-coddle" teased Jones, grabbing Molly in a loose headlock and kissing the top of her head.

"Get off me you git" smiled Molly, poking Jones in the ribs.

A cheer from the football game below brought Molly's attention back to her cooling tea. She looked up to see her Captain, Zoe Dodson approaching her table. She instinctively straightened her back and shoulders.

"Oh good god, Molly you can lay off that shit for a start" said Zoe "It's too bloody hot for protocol"

"Is that my captain or my mate talking?"

"Mate. Definitely mate."

Molly relaxed and smiled, shifting over on the bench to make room.

"Not enjoying the balmy weather then?"

"It's not so balmy when you're stuck inside a tent 12 hours a day. Its like being in a sauna, except a lot less fun, and full of sweaty middle-aged chauvinists. Bloody hell Molls, how can you drink tea in this heat?"

"Mess tent is all out of chilled Chablis."

Zoe laughed, and then groaned. "How's things?"

"OK"

"Really?"

"What have you heard?"

"I heard Harris was practicing his motivational speaking earlier" Molly glanced up at Zoe, but said nothing. "What did he say this time?"

"He objected to me giving out extra water at the end of the last exercise. Then he made his usual crack about me moving up in the world. Nothing out of the ordinary"

"I'm sorry Molls"

"It's not like I haven't heard it all before. It's getting so old. Charles left the army 5 years ago. At what point do I get to step out of his shadow?"

"Don't ask me, I was introduced to the Colonel the other day. Do you know what the first thing he said was? _Ahh, you must be John's girl_. Then he stared at my tits."

"Well, they are very good tits"

They both laughed. Zoe and Molly had been good friends since they first met at Aldershot. On paper they shouldn't work, but they did. Zoe came from an Army family, her father had spent 35 years in the service, and she and her brother had joined the family firm. Zoe felt the constant pressure of being someone's daughter and someone's sister, even when she passed out from Sandhurst before her brother.

"At the risk of talking shop, how's it going for you? How are you coping with the step up to corporal?"

"It's OK, some of my section need a swift kick up the arse, but I think they're doing alright"

"Anyone in particular?"

"No _Captain_"

"OK, I get the message. I'll keep out of it."

"How's it for you?"

"Boring. I've spent most of my time sat in a tent, staring at a screen. The other day I got so bored I made a spreadsheet rating the abilities of various squaddies to fill out a pair of combats."

"God, you're such a perv"

"I've been driven to it. Now, on the subject of filling out a pair of combats, who was that bloke you were talking to the other day?"

"Erm, Zoe, you might gonna have to be more specific. I speak to a lot of men most days."

"You were in the mess, he was tall, slim, mancunian. I didn't get a good look at his badge, maybe one of the Anglians?"

"Fingers?"

"Ooh, Fingers, that sounds promising. Why 'Fingers'?"

"Seriously?"

"Hey, good fingerwork is a skill that's often overlooked"

"You _are_ a perv"

"Let's call it an interest"

"An interest in the contents of his pants"

"So, when are you going to introduce me?"

"Never. I wouldn't do that to him, he's one of my oldest friends"

"I could pull rank. And, what's this I heard from the major about you requesting dispensation to go off base?"

"Charles' best mate. Ex army, runs a ranch near here. He wondered if I could go see them. I was just sounding it out"

"Don't you like them?"

"No, it's not that. I'd love to see them, I just don't want to...you know...plead a special case. Anyway, I might need to keep an eye on Aston when we're on R&amp;R"

"Why?"

"I keep catching her making eyes at that twerp Harris. The other day I spotted her coming out of his tent."

"Do you think something is going on?"

"Dunno, I think someone just needs to keep an eye on her"

"Leave it to me. You should go, spend a few days out of here. Get away from all this shit. Besides, I already told the major you could be spared."

"Why do I think there's strings attached?"

"No strings. Just…._Fingers, have you met Captain Dodson? Captain Dodson, this is corporal Fingers.._ You know the drill. I'd like to see him to stand to attention."

"Sex pest"

* * *

Charles was not used to drinking in the afternoons. He was lagging well behind Dave and Belinda, who seemed to have settled in for the duration. He hoped the money he had paid to Bella was going to cover him for the favour. He doubted it.

He really should be going. If he didn't leave soon he would hit rush hour on the tube, and then be stuck with the rest of the commuters on the way back to Aldershot. He made made his way to the bar to settle up, and get himself a coffee to straighten his head out.

"That's all, love?" asked the woman behind the bar, flashing him a smile.

"Yes thanks, actually, I'd better have a coffee and another round for Dave and Belinda"

"Right you are. You're Molly's fella, is that right?"

"Yes, Charles. It's good to meet you…"

"Diane. Belinda's told me all about you. She's so proud of her Molls. Is she not with you?"

"No, she's away on exercise"

"Oh, that's a shame, still, I'm sure she'll be home soon"

"Just a few more weeks"

"Are you the one that takes crippled soldiers up mountains or something?"

"Sort of, we work with all sorts of veterans, help them get back on their feet. Sometimes it's difficult to adjust to civvy street. It's not all about the injuries you can see."

Charles slotted his credit card into the machine Diane offered him, and entered his PIN number. Loading his tray with the last round of drinks he made his way over to the table.

"Cheers Charles, you're a gent" said Dave, lifting his pint off the tray.

Charles sat down and looked around him. Belinda glanced at him and gave him a big smile. She reminded him so much of Molly that it almost hurt. She would have loved this afternoon, just kicking back and spending time with her parents.

"You miss her don't you?" asked Belinda, leaning towards him.

"Is it that obvious?"

"She'll be home soon."

"I know"

"I'm so glad you and her are together."

"Thanks Belinda" he said, putting his arm around her and giving her a hug.

He downed the last of his coffee, and started putting on his coat.

"I have to head back now" he said "otherwise it's going to take hours. Are you going to be OK getting home?"

"Yeah, I can't speak for Dave though"

As he pulled his hat out of his pocket his phone beeped. He read the screen with a puzzled look.

"Everything OK?"

"I think so. Have you been talking?"

"What do you mean?"

Charles turned his phone to Belinda. The message on the screen said 'Come and see me. Now"

"Who sent you that?"

"Nan"

* * *

**Author's notes**

**Wikipedia informs me that West Ham are due to move from their current stadium at Upton Park in the 2016/17 season.**

**For those of you too young to remember who Chas and Dave were (are), look them up. They say the past is another country, and they're right.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed, it's lovely to hear your thoughts. A rather more serious chapter this time, but hopefully still as enjoyable.**

Molly was up before dawn. She hadn't been able to sleep for much of the night; cold misty weather had rolled down from the mountain and she had to keep getting up to put another layer of clothes on just to keep warm. Once she was awake she couldn't stop the thoughts from whirling around her head. She kept thinking about what had happened in the last week, and what lay ahead ahead of her.

She was struggling. She couldn't help feeling that everything she had been working for, all the hard work with her trainees, all the slog of keeping them going, motivated and engaged was unravelling. She was battling on two fronts, her section were less and less responsive. They mostly toed the line, but she felt that her connection with them was weakening. There was no one event that stood out, more a cooling and distancing from them. They gave her just as much they needed to, but no more. The easy banter that flowed between them had dried up, now when she approached them they clammed up, and one or two no longer looked her in the eye. To top if off she just couldn't catch a break where Harris was concerned. He found fault with everything she did or said. He seemed to take a perverse pleasure in singling her out for criticism, most of it delivered in the most sneering and public way possible.

It had started on the day of the live firing exercise. Molly had risen early, doing her best to ensure her section were ready to move on time. There were the inevitable delays, the day was hot, the transport was old and uncomfortable and 30km south of Archers Post it had broken down. It had taken 45 minutes camped out at the side of the road while their Kenyan Army driver tinkered with the ancient truck until they were moving again. The long climb over the foothills of Mount Kenya had already slowed them, and in addition to the breakdown as they dropped down towards the hot dry expanse of the NFD they found large sections of the road had washed away leaving jagged islands of tarmac in long stretches of rutted dusty track. None of this seemed to slow the local transport, small minibuses would fly past them at breakneck speed, filled to bursting with people, luggage and sometimes livestock, showering them in clouds of dust and sometimes causing them to brake suddenly to prevent a collision.

Eventually they arrived at the live firing area, late, dusty and with tempers fraying. Lt Harris had no sympathy with their transportation problems, although looking back on it Molly suspected that he had assigned her section to the oldest and least reliable transport. The personnel at the range were brisk and efficient, soon getting Molly's section up to speed, running through safety procedures, and getting them accustomed to target shooting. Harris growing ever more impatient had wheedled and cajoled the CO of the range, trying to get him to cut short the target shooting and get everyone out on exercise. Molly had caught the tail end of the exchange, the CO had held no sympathy for Harris, reminding him that he was in charge of the operation, and that he would not cut corners on the safety of any personnel. Passing Molly he had thrown her a sly wink and stopped to reassure her.

"Cheer up Corporal, I've dealt with his sort before. He's going to find out I'm the very definition of an immovable object"

"I'm so sorry we've delayed things, sir"

"Never mind that. You aren't the first transport to be late and you won't be the last. The object of the exercise isn't to get you through it as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible. I'm pretty impressed with their shooting so far. Some good accuracy, let's see how they do at a longer range"

Molly had felt better until she looked up, meeting Harris' eyes. He threw her a harsh look and turned on his heel, seeking the shade of a nearby shelter.

After all the sections had tried their hands on the ranges they progressed to moving targets, and more complex drills. Molly received positive feedback on the performance of her section, they were working well, listening to their instructors and she was starting to feel that this morning's events were behind her. They broke for lunch shortly before 1, giving everyone a chance to seek shade in the hottest part of the day.

Molly had sat herself as far as possible from Harris, trying to fly under his radar whenever she could. They were a small group and she couldn't get that far away from him for very long. After lunch she briefed her section on the upcoming drills, they would be running some battle simulations, mainly concentrating on reacting to contact in a number of scenarios.

"I'm getting good feedback from the guys here, your accuracy on the ranges is excellent. Now it's time to step it up a notch, this is ideal practice for the final exercise. I know its hot, and it's been a bugger just getting here, but keep your concentration up"

"Of course" came the voice of Harris from the sidelines "If you had pulled your bloody finger out Dawes, we would have a chance to work on some additional drills"

Molly closed her eyes and counted to five. It was one thing to haul her over the coals in the relative privacy of the ops tent, or even in front of her fellow corporals, but in front of her section was a low blow, even by his standards.

"I'm sorry for the delay in the exercise sir, but it couldn't be helped"

"Really, and do you think you would be able to say sorry and have it all forgiven when its for real? How much do you think your apologies will count then? Or do you think you just get your boyfriend to whistle up a helicopter and whisk you away?"

Molly straightened her shoulders, raised up her chin and looked Harris in the eye. He wasn't going to break her.

"Sir?"

"Your attitude leaves a lot to be desired Dawes. Lets just set the bar nice and low for you. Make sure you keep this sorry shower alive for the rest of the day. We wouldn't want to stretch your failed GCSE English by making you crack open your crayon set to write letters home on their behalf"

Molly heard the unmistakable sound of a few sniggers over her shoulder as she watched Lt Harris walk away.

* * *

She was trying not to dwell on things. Today was the start of their final exercise and it was too big a deal to be distracted worrying about last week. Right now she needed tea and lots of it. Judging by the clattering and steam coming from the cookhouse breakfast preparation was in full swing. She made her way towards the mess tent hoping that someone had enough sense to put the tea urn on nice and early. She was cutting through the officers' tents when a movement caught her eye.

A blonde woman was leaving Harris' tent. Molly ducked down, not wanting to be seen. The woman barely looked around before scurrying away towards the soldiers' quarters. Molly briefly thought she should probably keep out of it, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she started to follow.

She ducked between tents, using the mist and the pale dawn light as cover. Whoever it was she was following, she wasn't making much effort to hide. Molly guessed she would be heading towards the female quarters and cut the corner, gaining a few metres on her. As she got closer she recognised the woman. It was Private Aston.

Aston ducked into the tent she shared with the other female medics. Molly drew closer, trying to calm her breathing so she couldn't be heard from inside.

"Bloody hell Emma, you're cutting it a bit fine aren't you? Everyone will be up soon."

"I know, but it was so cold, and it was so lovely and warm in bed. He kept on making it hard for me to leave"

"Eww, I really don't want to know. You'd better watch out for yourself, what would you have done if the corp had caught you?"

"I'm not worried about her. She wouldn't have a leg to stand on, not with what she did."

"That can't be true, she couldn't have stayed in if it was like that."

"I swear it's true. Jon was telling me last night. You know she's shacked up with the bloke who was her Captain in Afghanistan? Well apparently there's more. While she was out there there was this other lad. Smurf, or Clanger or some stupid name. Well, the corp was having it off with him and the Captain at the same time. Stringing them both along. Neither of them knew about each other. Anyway towards the end of the tour there was some big lovers tiff, and the two of them found out what she had done. They were on a mission and it all blew up, they both ended up getting shot. This Clanger bloke died and the captain was so badly injured he had to leave the army. She stayed in and managed to put it to her advantage, got herself a mention in despatches, and she's been climbing the greasy pole ever since." Aston sniggered. "Well, from what I've heard she's been working the greasy pole while being flat on her back, if you know what I mean. Jon reckons she's barely literate, she's got no GCSEs, but she's got all these connections, her boyfriend is in with the top brass and is pulling all these strings. How else do you think she's made it all the way to Corporal?"

Molly felt sick. The blood roared in her ears and the ground seemed to rush towards her. Instinctively she put out a hand to break her fall. She retched and coughed, tears stinging her eyes.

"Oi, is that you Jacobs, you big perv. You'd better not be earwigging!" came a shout from inside the tent.

"Yeah, as if we'd waste time talking about you, loser!"

Molly got to her feet quickly and stumbled towards the latrines, her hand clasped over her mouth. She could feel the bile rising in her throat, the sharp metallic tang filling her mouth. She just managed to make it to a cubicle in time, as she threw up.

* * *

She lost track of how much time she knelt on the floor of the latrine. After a while there was nothing left to throw up, and she slumped back, silent tears falling down her cheeks. She had always known there were rumours about her and Charles. A relationship between a private and an officer, or in their case an ex-officer was always bound to be the subject of speculation. Now they were dragging Smurf into it, which somehow made it much worse.

She and Smurf had gone through an awkward patch when they had got back from Afghan. She had felt responsible for what had happened on the bridge. She thought if only she had been clearer with Smurf about her feelings for him then he wouldn't have reacted the way he did. Looking back she should never taken that ring from Smurf, not even to look after. She thought she had made things clear, and had chosen to ignore the glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Then there was Charles. He had tried so hard to be honourable. To do the right thing and wait out. But she had been in such a mess about Badrai and Bashira. He just wanted to reach out and comfort her, and they were drawn together over and over like magnets. She was so caught up in the romance of it all that she couldn't help herself, she found it hard to keep her distance from him, and she seized on those fleeting moments when his concern went beyond professional and started to become personal.

Finally back in the UK her visits to both of them had been unsatisfactory, the thought that Charles would resign his commission over her was almost too much to take, and then coming face to face with Rebecca and Sam in the hospital drove home quite how different Charles' life was from her own. Smurf had tried to bluff his way out of things, but she couldn't ignore it again. She had visited him after their medal presentation and forced herself to have possibly one of the worst conversations of her life. She had to be honest with him, and she hoped she hadn't been too brutal. She wanted to be friends, no more. Even if she and Charles didn't work out she knew that Smurf would only ever be a friend. He had looked crushed. There had been tears from both of them, but in the end they parted, hoping to still be friends and agreeing to work up to it again. All the time she was there she knew Charles was just down the corridor, but her nerve failed her and she couldn't bring herself to see him.

Smurf had bounced back in the way that only Smurf could. A week after her visit he was discharged from Birmingham and sent home to convalesce. If he wasn't going to take the starring role in Molly's love life then he would do the next best thing and make sure that she and Charles got together. Late one night as he was nagging her to text Charles she had asked why he was taking such an interest. He had replied "The way I see it, the pair of you are both too chicken shit to make the first move. I'll be stuck at some platoon reunion in a year's time and you two will be making goo-goo eyes at each other across a function room, both looking like someone's pissed on your chips. Just the thought of it makes me want to heave my guts up." Molly had laughed, but in the back of her mind she knew he was right. That was the night she called Charles.

Her visit to Charles had been magical. Bath was beautiful, he took her out to the sort of restaurant you only ever saw on the tv, and then back to his parents' house. She had never experienced anything like being with Charles. He was in a different class from every other man she had been with. They had spent the next 24 hours in a bubble of romance and lust. It had been beyond her expectations. All those months of waiting and hoping and fantasising about being with him hadn't come close to the real thing.

For a brief moment everything seemed perfect. Charles loved her and she had her best mate back. Smurf was planning their trip to Vegas and talking about a life after the army. But she had always said that she didn't do perfect and sure enough, it all turned to shit.

No matter what anyone says, as an medic part of you has to be prepared to see someone you know die. You know that in all likelihood that person will be a friend. You hope it won't happen, but if the worst does happen you hope it will be quick. When you are deployed you are prepared for it, but when you come home you relax and those thoughts just aren't on your radar. The doctors had said that Smurf's death was mercifully quick, and that in all likelihood he hadn't felt anything, but Molly was there, she had seen it. She had seen him fall to the ground, clutching his head, she had held him as his body slowly stopped thrashing and his mumbles grew quieter and quieter. She hoped that he had been beyond feeling it. She had echoed what the doctors said when Candy asked.

Life began to spiral out of control again, and Molly did what she had always done, she ran. She ran away from Charles and back to the army, signing herself up for another tour of Afghan. Once again she plastered the 'untouchable Molly Dawes' mask on and threw herself into her work. And it was fine for a while, but it was just a plaster over the wound and it would always be that until she faced up to it.

Molly had always dealt with her problems by shutting people out and going it alone, but this time she wasn't allowed to. It started with the letters. Charles wrote, and wrote, and wrote. To anyone else they wouldn't seem like anything of note. He wrote about his day, his rehab at Headley Court and the people he was meeting, about his trips home, his family, his days with Sam, what books he was reading. All the while he was writing he was opening his life to her, the everyday and mundane, all Molly had to do was take her place in it. Slowly she did, their letters back and forth became conversations, she shared her hopes for the future, and they started to plan a life together.

Her other saviour was Qaseem. She regularly lectured at the university in Kabul and she would meet Qaseem afterwards for chai in his office. Qaseem never pushed her to talk, but understood the guilt of being the one who survived. He was the first person after Smurf that she told about Charles. He had held her hand and told her go and find her happiness.

This time when she returned home she came back with her ghosts laid to rest, and with an idea of what she wanted and where she wanted to be. She applied to continue her training work and was taken on training combat medics and started working towards promotion. Charles built on his voluntary work at Headley Court and found a permanent position in charity that worked with ex-service personnel. He rented a flat in Guildford and Molly would go home to him at weekends and holidays. Six months after her promotion to Lance Corporal she applied to live out and they moved to a small house near to Aldershot.

None of this came anywhere close to the salacious rumours that she had overheard being spread by Aston. She didn't know what hurt more, that she was still the subject of gossip or that the gossip was so far from the truth. She knew she had no chance of challenging any of this unless she could find out what else was being said and by who. For that she needed help. As she sat on the cold concrete floor of the latrine block she started to think.

* * *

The camp had come to life now. The mist had cleared and the sun was bright. Molly made her way towards the mess. She didn't feel much like eating, but she knew she had to have something, she would be living on ration packs for the next 48 hours, and that was enough to make anyone want to fill up on real food while they had the chance.

The mess was a sea of khaki and sunburnt faces as she dished a pile of anaemic looking eggs onto some tepid toast. Thankfully the tea was still on the go. She drank one mug in the queue, and filled it again before looking around the mess.

Finally she spotted who she was looking for. He was sitting towards the back of the mess, laughing loudly with a group of 10 or so young privates. She picked her way towards them.

"Room for a small one?"

"Dawsey!"

He stood and tried to hug her.

"Oi watch it you numpty, this is the last decent grub I'm going to get for a while" she peered at her plate and wrinkled her nose. "Well, it's the last hot cup of tea any rate"

"Budge up lads" ordered Fingers. "You all set then?"

"Dunno about that, I was up half the night, it was proper taters wasn't it?"

They fell into an easy conversation about the operation as Molly ate her breakfast. As they did people started to drift away. When they were alone at one end of the table Molly seized her opportunity.

"I need to ask you a favour"

"I can't tell you where we're going to be you know"

"No nothing like that" Molly sighed and scrubbed her hand over her face, suddenly feeling weary. "I heard something...some gossip. It was about me and the bossman, and… and Smurf"

Fingers shifted uncomfortably in his seat and tried to avoid catching Molly's eyes

"You knew? You might have told me!"

"Shit Molly, I just thought it was the usual camp bollocks. When I heard my lads talking I shut them up as quick as. Told them it was a load of crap. I was there, I should know."

"So you don't believe it then?"

"Of course not"

"It isn't true. I wasn't shagging anyone on that tour"

"I know that. Smurf wouldn't have shut up about it if you had. He couldn't keep his trap shut when he got his leg over, the horny Welsh tosser"

Molly smiled, it was lovely to talk to someone else who had known him, it made him feel alive somehow.

"Do you know where they got it from?"

"I didn't ask, why?"

"We've got this new lieutenant, he's been giving me a hard time, always making digs about Charles and stuff. He's been telling all this stuff to someone in my section. They've been off with me in the last week or so. Looks like her mouth is as flappy as her knicker elastic"

"Are we talking about Squinty?"

"Squinty?"

"That young RAMC officer, scrawny, face like a jar of pickled cabbage. Always squinting. You'd think Sandhurst would have covered the basics like what sunglasses were for"

Molly laughed. Fingers had described Harris perfectly. "That's the one"

"He's nobbing one of your section?"

"Looks that way"

"You going to report him?"

"Dunno. Right now I'm trying to work out how much damage he's done. If you've heard it then I'm guessing it's all round the camp by now."

"Do you need me to do some digging?"

"Do you mind?"

"Course not Molls. Leave it with me"

Molly sniffed back the tears that were collecting in her eyes "Thanks Fingers"

"Don't cry Dawsey. I'd give you a hug, but I don't think your reputation could take it."

"Bastard" she grinned, punching him playfully on the arm.

Molly looked up, out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of someone watching them. They caught her eye and started walking towards their table.

"Erm Fingers, you still got that thing for posh birds?"

"Why?"

"Put it this way, don't say I didn't warn you"

She looked up just as Zoe came to stop by the table, an amused grin on her face.

"Corporal Dawes" she smiled "How are things this morning?"

"Very good ma'am"

Zoe glanced pointedly at Molly and flicked her eyes towards Fingers.

"Captain Dodson, this is Corporal Fletcher. We were stationed together on my first tour of Afghan"

"Pleased to meet you Corporal Fletcher. Very pleased indeed" purred Zoe.


	4. Chapter 4

"Right then, this is the bit where I'm supposed to tell you what's going to happen over the next two days. Quite frankly if you don't know by now we've all failed in our jobs here. What I am excited about is getting out of this bloody camp and getting to be a soldier and not some trumped up desk jockey. This will be my chance to see what you've all been up to in the last 4 weeks. I expect great things."

Molly bit the side of her cheek to keep her face impassive. Zoe's frustration at being stuck in the camp was obvious. She had a unique leadership style; at least that's what Molly told her.

"Dawes, Jones, your sections are attached to Engineers. They will be making their way to here" she pointed at the map spread over the ops table, "their objective is to build a pontoon crossing of the river under cover of darkness to facilitate the movement of artillery and troops at first light. You will be dropped about 10km from the crossing point, and will have approximately 3.5 hours to complete this leg. Remember this is a full operational scenario. You should expect contact from the other side, and a civilian presence. You will be expected to lead your sections under the command of the Engineers' captain."

Jones and Molly scribbled in their notepads, trying to jot down as much information as they could as Captain Dodson continued her briefing.

"There will be air support throughout the day and tomorrow morning, both drones and manned craft. This is principally to discourage wildlife and spot for local herders who may come into the area for grazing. If you do come across anything you will need to radio for support. We aren't talking Eddie Grundy here, these guys herd with AK47s."

"Dum tee dum tee dum tee...boom!" muttered Jones under his breath and Molly sniggered.

Zoe carried on. "Now, the British army in its infinite wisdom has issued you with Swahili phrase books. As the locals speak Somali or Maa their Swahili is about as good as yours. If in doubt fall back on the in international language of grunting and pointing. You should be good at that by now having trained this bunch for the last six months."

Molly went back to biting her cheek. From the corner of her eye she could see that Jones was shaking.

"You will want to use your fledgling swahili when you run into those civilians fleeing from conflict, and again at the end of the exercise when it will be our turn to be the the lead in assessing those acting as refugees pending evacuation. I will be dusting off my _pole __swahili yangu ni mbaya sana_" she looked at the blank faces around her "_Sorry my swahili is very bad_. Honestly, you can get away with all sorts if you can tell someone you can't speak their language. My father made a career of it, and he was a Brigadier."

"Myself and Lts Harris and Jackson will be observing for this first day. We will be assessing your sections, so lets hope that their fitness is up to scratch. We will be operating at a lower altitude, which should be to our advantage, the downside being that it will be even hotter. Keep an eye out, make sure everyone is taking on water regularly. Today is your opportunity to show us your leadership skills. I have every faith in you, and I hope to hear nothing but good things from those you are working alongside. We will debrief at dusk, and further briefing on tomorrow's objectives at 05:00."

"Yes ma'am" chorused Molly and Jones, standing to attention before leaving the ops tent.

"Do you think top brass know quite how she runs those briefings?" asked Jones when they were out of earshot.

"She gets results in her own way, I'm much rather be dealing with her than Harris"

"God, did you see him in there? I thought he was going to explode at one point"

"I think it's safe to say he doesn't approve of the way she does things." Molly stopped walking and Jones drew to a halt beside her.

"Jonesy, about Harris," Molly took a deep breath "I've heard that he's been putting stuff out about me, personal things. I don't want you thinking it's true"

Jones patted Molly on the shoulder "Dawes, I don't pay attention to gossip."

"Thanks. You don't have any idea where it's coming from by any chance?"

"Sorry, no."

"OK. I just wish I knew who was saying all this."

"Does it matter, if it's not true?"

"It shouldn't, I'd just like it to stop"

"Well then address it."

"I want to but how can I if I don't know who is spreading it?"

"Dawes, do you really think if you found out who it was they'd grow a conscience and go around correcting everyone? If course not. If you want people to know its a pack of lies you have to tell them so."

Molly thought for a moment then started walking again. Jones fell into step beside her. They walked together in silence until they reached his quarters.

"Shall we gather them for a joint briefing in 10 minutes then?"

"Yeah, OK" said Molly in a distracted manner.

"Dawes?"

"Hmm?"

"Try and focus on now."

"Yep"

* * *

Molly surveyed the group in front of her. Ten young medics stood in full kit listening to Corporal Jones deliver their operational briefing. They looked in turn nervous, cocky, and tired but mostly incredibly young. It was hard to believe that some were the age she had been when she was deployed to Afghanistan. It seemed so long ago. Molly was struck with just how far she had come in five short years.

"Corporal Dawes will lead the next part of the briefing" said Jones turning to Molly.

"OK. As Corporal Jones has outlined, we are being deployed as a supporting group to a platoon of Engineers. This will give you all experience of working closely with other regiments. As CMTs you may be deployed with any other part of the army and you will need to learn to work alongside them quickly and seamlessly. Pay attention, think about how you will fit in with their operation. You will be taking orders from their CO, Captain Akeman. He will expect you to keep up and fit in."

"You will need to be alert; do not rely on someone else to spot things, if you see anything you need to speak up. A unit only works when you are all looking out for each other. Keep your focus. It will be a long hard day. It is the day we have been training for. We know that you are up to it. Don't let us down."

Molly caught Jones' eye and he gave her a quick wink.

"Section. Double away!"

* * *

The early evening sun was glinting off the wide brown river as they finally reached the shelter of some trees. A forward party had arrived an hour or so earlier and had erected a small shelter, which comically reminded Molly of the gazebo in Mrs James' garden. Somehow she doubted this gazebo would contain a cup of darjeeling served in bone china with a side of cucumber sandwiches.

The day had been long and hard. The terrain was harsher than they had been training in. There was noticeably less vegetation in this area, the landscape was rocky and any trees or bushes were sparse. It looked more like one of those photos you saw of the surface of another planet. The heat had been intense, they had been dropped at their starting point in the early afternoon; one of the last platoons to set off. The engineers had promised them a tough ride and they lived up to their word. They kept up a brutal pace, keen to get a head start and cover as much ground as quickly as possible. Their sections had been carrying some of the lighter equipment, but it was still in excess of the usual full pack. Molly had for once been thankful that the med kit carried by all the CMTs was considerably less than that carried by the Sappers. It gave her section a chance to keep up, and she was grateful that a combination of their additional training and the lower altitude had paid off.

There had been very little contact. Close to their rendezvous point they had been warned of a sighting of movements. They had altered their route to avoid contact. They had scrambled up a steep slope and over more hilly terrain. Crouching between rocks to avoid being spotted they had seen a small troop of soldiers below them, obviously expecting them to be moving across the flat ground. They continued to skirt around them and kept to the shoulder of the hill. It had added a few kilometers and another 45 minutes to their day, but the priority of their mission was to ensure that the equipment needed for the river crossing made it to the destination.

The medics had quickly found their places in the platoon, and Molly had been pleased with their performance. She allowed herself a small glow of pride at how well they had done. They responded well to the new section, and had held their own. Throwing herself into the mission had also helped to keep her thoughts away from the events of the morning. She was still full of adrenaline from the day, and wasn't yet feeling the tiredness of a long march after a sleepless night.

As the dusk drew in she settled her section, taking time to answer any queries they had, and left them to their ration packs as she headed to the gazebo for the debrief. Their feedback from Captain Akeman had been positive, and Captain Dodson had been very pleased to hear all he had said. She was in her element on operations. Observant and engaged she made her way round all her troops checking in with each of them personally. Molly smiled to herself. This was the soldiering that Zoe relished, being out in the field, working with the troops; not stuck indoors rubber stamping logistics reports and checking inventory lists. She was sometimes labelled irreverent, but her easy going style was backed up by a natural authority that won her the respect of her troops. Harris had, as usual observed the debrief with a look of disapproval on his face. "He looks like a bulldog licking piss off a stinging nettle" as Nan would say. Molly took her time to observe him more closely. His eyes darted between Dodson and Akeman, and he almost seemed to wince every time Zoe spoke.

Once the debrief was over Molly went back to her section. She and Jones had drawn up rota for the overnight watch. The engineers were already hard at work, surveying the river before they lost the daylight. The work would take them most of the night, and once the crossing was finished the message would pass down to the line to the other sections that lay in the country around to make their way forward towards tomorrow's objective, a small but well defended base a few kilometers to the North.

Molly and Corporal Jones gathered their section together to feedback from the debrief. A half hour rest and a meal from their ration pack had restored their energy somewhat and they used the time to discuss the day. Mostly they wanted to know how close to the real thing the day had been.

"Have you been deployed Corp?" came the question from Private Jacobs.

"I was out in Afghan on Herrick 16, and also posted to Turkey at the start of the Syrian conflict in 2016." replied Corporal Jones. "I flew as part of the crew in MERTs out of Bastion and then in Turkey I was working in refugee camps supporting the UN force. If you want to know what being deployed in the field is like you should talk to Corp Dawes, she was deployed in Helmand, isn't that right?"

"Yeah, Herrick 19. I was a last minute replacement attached to an infantry platoon. We were mainly stationed in a forward operating base in Helmand, though we also ran some missions out of Bastion towards the end of the tour."

"What was it like corp?"

"Well, they've got the climate right here, I'll say that. It was hotter than hell most of the time. Our base was close to a village so there was lots of interaction with the local population. We were there to mostly support the ANA. I went back to Afghan a few months later, but that was to train Afghan medics. We had handed over by then so it was just advisory."

"It was difficult at first. The lads I was with had all been training for this for months and were tight. Their medic busted a leg one week out and I was brought in at the last minute. I was finishing up my phase 2 training at the time. It took a while before I felt I was part of the team. That's what I meant this morning. As a medic you can be dropped in anywhere and you're expected to get on with it. You need to be confident in your skills as a medic but flexible enough to work with people who don't know you. Being in a small platoon like this today is pretty close to what its like being deployed."

"This heat is a bit full on, how did you cope?"

"This sort of heat is easier to cope with than the humidity. I was in Sierra Leone in 2015, and I'd never known anything like it. It was like walking round a turkish bath in a winter coat. The sweat was just dripping off you every day. I'd take the dry heat any day."

"But it was pretty quiet today wasn't it?"

"Well yeah, but sometimes it's like that. You won't get contact every time; sometimes nothing happens for weeks on end. But you have to keep alert, you can't get complacent. And today, our objective was to get here to get the crossing built, we want to avoid contact as much as we can, it will slow you down and it could jeopardize the whole operation."

"Weren't we almost out of it by Herrick 19?" said Aston "I mean it's not like that it was that dangerous really was it?"

Molly felt her temper rise at the comment, but she tried to keep her tone even "I don't think the taliban got that memo, Aston. Definitely not the ones who tried to kill us on our second patrol, or the insurgent I had to jackpot when I was treating 2 of my section while under fire."

Aston looked down, suddenly very interested in a small beetle scurrying towards a tuft of grass.

"You might not think this is serious, but this is the nearest you are going to get without putting your life in danger. Pull your head out of your arse. Herrick 19 was not some jolly. A lot of people didn't come back. Good people. We lost half our ANA contingent in one night. We got out of it lightly. All of our platoon made it back to the UK, most of them in one piece."

Aston shrugged and avoided looking Molly in the eye. The mood had noticeably changed and the conversation tailed off.

The darkness was drawing in, and it was getting harder to see the faces of the people sat about. Corporal Jones took charge, assigning watch shifts to members of the platoon. Aston was to take the 2am watch with Private Jacobs and they bivvied down for a few hours sleep as best they could.

Molly opened up her ration pack and looked at what was left. She decided on the chicken curry washed down with a blackcurrant drink. She looked longingly at the teabags but decided she couldn't be bothered to heat some water for a brew. She would save that until tomorrow morning when she would be cold and stiff from lying on the hard ground all night. After finishing her meal she climbed into her sleeping bag and tried to get a few hours rest.

* * *

"Dawesey! Dawes" hissed a voice.

"Hmmmm?" mumbled Molly trying to snuggle further into her sleeping bag.

"Dawes. Time to wake up."

"Jonesey? What time is it?"

"02:30, time to swap over. Here, don't say I don't do anything for you" he passed a mug to her.

"Tea? God, I think I might love you."

"Save your love for the sappers. Apparently they 'acquired' a tea urn and catering bag of tea bags. By all accounts they only work if they have tea on hand 24/7."

"I'm transferring regiments tomorrow."

"Did you get any sleep?"

"Yeah, like the dead. I was cream crackered"

"Sappers look they're almost done, we might start out earlier than we thought. Wake me if the briefing gets moved up?"

"No probs, thanks for the tea"

Molly rolled up her sleeping bag and stowed it in her pack. She ate a snack bar from her ration pack. The hot cup of tea was bliss. She sipped it slowly and looked up at the stars. The night was dark and cloudless, the moon had set and the stars were laid out over the night sky. The milky way stretched in an arc towards the horizon, a band of pinpricks of light arching across the night sky. The silhouette of the craggy hills rising in a deep black to the north. Ever since Afghan Molly had loved being beyond the light pollution of the city at night. The stars were a source of neverending wonder. They held bittersweet memories. Being in Afghanistan; those life changing months, finding her place in the army machine, and the friendships she had made. That time was gone, but the memories were so strong. She felt that all she had to do was to turn and she would find herself back on the roof of the latrine, looking down on the camp once again. "I bet you wouldn't stand for this, would you?" she spoke softly to herself. "Probably go off and do something stupid without thinking or be in some massive sulk." She raised her mug to the sky in a quiet salute. "Here's to you, you massive Welsh twat"

Tea finished she decided to take a walk around the makeshift encampment. Most people were asleep, huddled in their sleeping bags on the ground, their heads resting on their packs. She could hear activity down by the river, the revving of engines and the murmur of muffled voices. Picking her way between the groups of sleeping bodies she headed towards the makeshift HQ. As she neared the site of the crossing a torch shone into her eyes.

"Here mate, can you put that torch down a bit, you're gonna blind me"

"Sorry Corporal. Anything I we can do for you?"

"I'm was wondering if I could get some more of that tea. Need to check in with the watch. They'll be as grumpy as hell even before they see me so I thought I'd take them a sweetener."

"No problem, how many?"

"Two. Here fill this one up and all will you?"

"We're getting a bit low on milk, I hope you don't mind us being a bit mean with it"

"Course not. You could rinse your socks in it for all my lot will care, they'll be gagging for a brew. How exactly did you get all this in the first place?"

"Sappers' secret ma'am" came the reply "Actually, we distracted the cookhouse staff and raided the mess tent when they weren't looking. Our Captain pretty much takes tea intravenously so none of us wanted to spent 36 hours around him doing cold turkey."

"Well, you're gonna make some medics very happy, cheers."

Molly set off with the tea to find Jacobs and Aston. Jacobs seemed genuinely touched by the gesture of a hot brew. He looked tired and said he hadn't got much sleep. Molly then moved onto the next watch station to find Aston.

"Aston. Brew."

"Ma'am"

She passed the mug over and settled down next to her.

"Did you get some kip?"

"A bit. I was pretty tired."

"Well, it was a long day, and if you're anything like me you won't have got much sleep last night either."

Aston paused momentarily before answering, "No corp, not much"

"How are you finding it?"

"Alright I think"

"And do you feel you're settling into the section OK now?"

"Yes ma'am"

"Good"

Molly let them sit in silence for a few moments, noticing that Aston seemed to be growing more and more unsettled as the quiet drew on.

"Jacobs seems like a good lad" she said finally, taking pity on her.

"I suppose so, he's...well he's a bit keen"

"Nothing wrong with that. You need good mates like him around."

"Oh, he's nothing like that. I wouldn't...well he's a bit young if you know what I mean?"

"More interested in the older man then?"

"Well, I...umm" Aston tailed off, sounding embarrassed.

"Like Lt Harris maybe? I mean he's still pretty young from where I'm standing, but maybe the pip makes him more appealing"

Aston said nothing.

"I've heard some talk" Molly continued "well, I've heard lots of talk, you tend to in a place like this, don't you? Don't worry, it's not all about you. Going on what I've heard about pretty much none of it is true, so I'm sure the bits that mentioned you can't be true either. Maybe I can offer you some advice, as someone who's been there and got the t shirt. Don't believe everything you hear, and choose your friends wisely. The army is a small place. You will see these people again, and you want them to remember you in a good way."

Aston shuffled uncomfortably. "Yes ma'am" she said eventually.

Molly let the silence engulf them once more, and she looked up at the night sky. The stars were fading as the inky black turned a deep shade of blue from the east. She took a final drink from her mug and stood up, brushing the dust from her hands on her trousers.

"We'll be briefing shortly after 5, so make sure you're ready to go by then. Have something to eat stock up on water for the day." She looked around "Oh, and is that your sleeping bag over there? If so you might want to give it a good shake before you pack it away. You don't want to be finding a scorpion in your pack, do you?"

* * *

**Author's notes**

**This chapter has been a bit of a challenge. Still, I got to spend valentine's evening googling the contents of army ration packs; so that's not time wasted ;)**

**I have absolutely no idea what goes on during an exercise like this, so this is the best I could cobble together on the basis of some web articles and my imagination. The more I write and research the more I see the mistakes I've made earlier, but I suppose that's the nature of the beast.**

**I'm aware I left you all hanging with the Charles/Nan situation, and that won't be resolved for a while yet. I'm enjoying spending time with Molly right now.**

**Thanks to everyone for your reviews, I'm very flattered you are taking the time to read when we seem to be so spoiled for choice with OG FF. **


	5. Chapter 5

**This is a long one. You might want to lock yourself away or save it for after the kids have gone to bed.**

**I'm no Andy McNab, and for obvious reasons the British Army don't really give out much detail about the finer points of operational tactics so I've been trying to work out something that could pass as plausible. Here goes….**

The grey light was gradually fading, and the world was starting to take on colour again. Somewhere birds were undoubtedly singing, though precious little could be heard over the movement of heavy trucks slowly inching their way over the river crossing.

The RAMC contingent were gathered by the side of the track waiting to be called forward to cross. As a section with a higher ratio of females they seemed to be coming in for a bit of attention from the convoy of trucks waiting to pass.

"Ere, medic!" shouted one lad waiting to cross "I've got this terrible swelling. I think you need to take a look!" He rubbed his groin as his mates laughed.

"I only do first aid" yelled back Aston "not microsurgery!"

Molly allowed herself a little chuckle at the situation, she couldn't have put it better herself.

They had hoped to set off before first light, but things weren't moving as quickly as planned. Molly noticed that Harris was taking the delay with his usual lack of grace, and was currently pacing back and forth a few yards away from them. Every few minutes he would stop and look at the slow moving convoy of trucks and shake his head before going back to pacing again.

"He's going to wear out the riverbank" she remarked to Jones.

"Silly berk. He's wasting his energy"

"Uh-oh, it looks like he's had an idea" said Molly as Harris stopped mid pace and then set off towards the Sergeant who was supervising the crossing.

"Oh, this is not going to be pretty. Did we bring popcorn?"

They watched as he strode towards the Sergeant and started talking to him. The Sergeant shook his head. Harris carried on talking, his body language getting more animated. Once again the Sergeant shook his head. Harris took a step closer to the Sergeant and started pointing his finger in his face and then back at the convoy of trucks. He then started tapping at the sergeant's clipboard and gesticulating more wildly. The sergeant, a beefy looking man about twice the girth of Harris and turning a puce colour finally pointed towards the operations tent then turned his back and walked down the line of trucks.

Harris stood still momentarily and then made his way back to the riverbank. He rocked back and forth on his feet, and shuffled, keeping up a constant nervous movement.

"You know what, I've got a six year old brother who does that" remarked Molly "It normally means he needs a piss. Do you think he remembered to go before we set off?"

"He's going to need one soon if he doesn't stop staring at that river" said Jones.

The sunrise was gathering pace now, shadows strengthening and growing shorter as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Suddenly there was a thumping noise in the sky behind them and 2 helicopters flew over the waiting troops towards the hills in the distance.

"Ruddy hell, they're a bit low" complained Private Jacobs.

"They have to be, they're going to fly over the area we'll be in today" replied Molly "Their job is to drive some of the animals away. I don't much fancy running into a herd of elephants, do you?"

"You're shitting us boss"

"I'm not. Mental or what?"

Ten minutes later the movement of transporters seemed to pick up the pace, and the RAMC platoon were sat in the back of a truck making their way slowly over the river. They drove a few kilometers further before the truck stopped. They climbed down and organised themselves into their sections before Captain Dodson started her briefing.

In their sections they would take part in the final exercise to capture the 'enemy' base on a hillside compound. As medics they were have a supporting role, following after the main wave of troops. They would assess and treat any injuries in the field, and following the successful completion of the mission objective they were to set up a triage centre at the compound, assessing refugees and helping to facilitate their evacuation. Each section was to be led by one officer. Molly's section was to go with the Captain, Jones drew the short straw and was under the command of Lt Harris.

"Dodged a bullet there Dawsey" Jones remarked

"I've done my time mate. Good luck, you're going to need it."

"Head down, gob shut. That's my motto."

* * *

The Captain took her time to review the objectives with her section, she laid out a map on the ground, weighted down by rocks and made sure that all section were fully briefed on the location of the target, the movement of other sections and the route they were to take. She was in her element in the field, passing on her enthusiasm and expertise. She asked for questions and answered them clearly, giving all the privates a chance to practice their navigation skills. Their in depth briefing meant that they left a good 15 minutes behind Lt Harris' section who had set off pretty much as soon as the platoon briefing had finished.

Despite their later start they made good time, covering the ground quicker than expected and soon they were in sight of 2 groups of soldiers, both making their way towards a low ridge.

Dodson stopped and ordered the section to halt. She raised her binoculars to her eyes and surveyed the two groups ahead of her.

"What's going on here?" she muttered quietly to herself.

Glancing at her map and taking a compass bearing she looked once more at the scene in front of her. She could just make out 2 lines advancing towards the ridge, both seemingly heading for the same point.

"Right people" she turned to address the section "We're going to have to take a small detour. Follow me"

She picked up the pace, eager to make this as brief as possible. She wanted to get to a closer range to make contact over the personal radio, rather than have to call it in over the battle group system.

The two groups had slowed a little now they were on the climb up the ridge and they quickly advanced on them.

"Harris" Dodson called over the radio, hoping they were in range.

"Harris?"

There was no response. She started to climb upwards, scrabbling on the loose rocks littering the hillside. Every few yards she paused and tried to make radio contact. Eventually she picked up a signal, unfortunately from the group of infantry that were also climbing the ridge.

"Exactly just how many medics does it take to royally fuck up a simple exercise?"

"I'd like to ask my second lieutenant question before I answer that if you don't mind."

"Be our guest, he doesn't appear to be in radio contact."

Dodson took a deep breath and using all her energy she shouted up the hill.

"What the actual fuck do you think you are doing Harris?"

One of the section obviously heard her and stopped, shouting up the line, trying to get the attention of the young lieutenant. "Sir….Sir...Oi Corp...Stop!"

"Good god" Zoe muttered to herself "we're going to be a bloody laughing stock"

The line above her eventually stopped moving and seven faces looked down. She tapped her headset to signal that they should carry out this conversation via radio.

"Ma'am? Is there a problem?"

"I'll repeat the question, what the fuck are you doing?"

"I don't understand ma'am. We're heading to our objective"

"No. You are heading to this section's objective, yours is half a km in that direction"

"I don't think so"

"Are you questioning me Harris?"

"No ma'am"

"Well then get down from there and lets discuss this without the audience of 3 sections of her majesty's finest listening in shall we?"

She waited for Harris to turn his section around and then started the short scramble up to the waiting group of infantry half way up the ridge.

* * *

Harris and his section made it to the bottom of the ridge where they joined Molly's section. She glanced over at Jones and raised her eyebrows. He shot back a very slight shake of his head, otherwise neither of the sections spoke, waiting for Captain Dodson to return. When she finally reached them she had a face like thunder. Molly had thought she'd seen her angry before, but this looked like a whole new level.

"Harris, Dawes, Jones. With me"

She walked a few meters away from the two groups of privates.

"Right, we're going to swap. Harris, you will take 3 section with Dawes and continue to the position. I suggest you double check your route with Corporal Dawes and defer to her judgement if there is any doubt." Harris started to voice his objection but Dodson cut him short.

"I have just had to apologise for you to a Captain of the Anglian regiment. Ineptitude of the standard you have just displayed is best suited to Dads Army, not an officer of the RAMC. How you managed to find your way to the gates of Sandhurst, let alone pass out with navigation skills like that is beyond me. I suggest you don't try my patience further. Jones, you and 5 section will be with me." Jones risked the slightest ghost of a smirk and the captain turned on him as well "Don't think you get out of this unscathed Jones. You're on the back burner until today is over, and then we will all be sitting down to discuss this further. Now we've wasted most of the morning, I suggest we all get a bloody move on. I will not have the RAMC held up as a laughing stock, do you all understand me?"

"Yes Boss" they all chorused.

Molly was less than happy at the prospect of dealing with Harris for the rest of the day, and judging by the look on his face the feeling was mutual. She squared her shoulders and decided she was just going to have to cope. It was a few hours, and then she would move on with the next part of the exercise, and with any luck that would be the last she saw of him for the rest of the day.

"Come on Dawes, get your section ready" he shouted. His face, already flushed from his run in with Captain Dodson was becoming an unsavoury mottled shade of pink. Molly tried to put Finger's comparison of him to a jar of pickled cabbage out of her mind.

The navigation issue now solved, 3 section made good progress. Molly kept an eye on their route but this time he seemed to be on the right track. She knew they needed to make up for the delays this morning, so she kept quiet about rest breaks for the section. They were actually coping pretty well with the pace, and she was grateful that they carried hydration packs which meant that they could take on water as they went. The climb up the ridge was brutal. It was a steep scramble up the dark grey rocks which had spent the morning absorbing the heat of the sun. At times they were unbearably hot to the touch. There was very little vegetation, certainly nothing much to use to as a hand hold, and what there was was covered in ferocious looking spikes and thorns. As they climbed they would disturb small blue lizards with bright orange heads basking on the rocks and they would scurry away into cracks and crevices, poking their heads out after they passed. Molly paused mid climb, waiting for the last person in the line to catch up. She looked out across the plain spread out below them. It was mostly a scrubby tan colour, the grass had long since dried up and withered. Dotted amongst the grass were small bushes, patches of startling green, and through the landscape snaked a pale golden ribbon of the track they had taken from the river. Above them the sky was a deep blue, small clouds were starting to bubble up in the gathering heat of the day, casting shadows on the ground below them. High up in the air small specks circled, vultures and eagles rising on the thermals from below.

She couldn't linger over the sight, above her Harris was nearing the top of the ridge and she knew he wouldn't be likely to wait long for the rest of the section to catch up. At the summit of the ridge they could see over to the valley below. Halfway up the hill, below a steep outcrop of rocks was the battle group's final objective. A platoon made up of BATUK staffers were dug in at a fortified position. The terrain was steep and scrubby, more so than the ridge they had just climbed. Looking through her binoculars she could just make out a network of shallow trenches fortified with sandbags that snaked around the perimeter of the compound. There seemed to be only one way in, a narrow track that hugged the side of the hill. The climb from below was steep, and above looked like a vertical rock face. The attacking companies had approached the position from the other side of the hill, and a number of platoons lay in wait on the valley floor. Their objective was to attack the position in waves, to distract from key positions and draw their defence away from the main areas of attack. High above them intelligence was being gathered by drones, and this would be fed back to the troops on the ground, who could then alter their tactics accordingly.

Three section were to wait out in their position until the fortifications were breached and access could be gained. Their job was principally to treat battle casualties, set up triage for both enemy combatants and those who were standing in as members of the local population. The section were glad of the break after their long morning. Molly tried to discuss possible tactics for the next phase with Lt Harris.

"Sir, have you given any thought to possible routes down?" she asked.

Harris consulted his map. "If everything proceeds as planned we should be accessing via the main entrance, so we will need to make our way to the track. The route marked takes us along this contour and then a shallow scramble to the track at this point."

"Yes sir, but if you look, 200 metres from the descent point, can you see there's a large rock to make our way over, I can't see the terrain beyond that, but it looks like there's a lot of undergrowth; it might be hard to make our way through that. Another route might be to descend below the rock, that way we can use it for cover rather than expose ourselves to sniper fire as we try and navigate what lies behind it."

Harris looked at her carefully, he obviously wasn't expecting to talk tactics with Molly. To his credit he raised his binoculars and considered her suggestion.

"But we're still left with a longer descent to the track from that point, if you think we are in danger from sniper fire surely we would be just as vulnerable at that point?"

"I suppose so. We could split the section sir, I could take five on the lower route and you could take one other on the higher route. Provided there's adequate cover in the undergrowth you might be able to provide cover until we are able to reach the bushes by the side of the road, then we can provide cover on your descent."

Harris took a moment to consider her suggestion "That might work. Alright, lets do that. I'll take Jacobs."

They fell into silence once again. Molly was quietly pleased that he had taken her opinion on board, and more than a little surprised that he had agreed to it. She hoped it would work, she had no doubt that if it didn't this brief moment of cooperation would soon be forgotten about.

* * *

In the end they waited on the ridge for about an hour. From their vantage point they could watch the drama unfold beneath them. The attacking sections had drawn fire from the defended position, and had used their superior fire power and weight of numbers to drive home their advantage. They mounted a number of diversionary attacks on the perimeter, and simultaneously attacked at the main entrance to the compound. Listening in over the radio they could make out the intelligence being fed back to the attacking companies, keeping them informed of movements within the compound and the likely positions of civilians.

Soon the order came for them to move. Harris took the lead and keeping low they made their way towards a large boulder, about a third of the way down the ridge. Safely behind the boulder and out of the sightline of the compound they split into 2 groups.

"Right, Jacobs and I will climb up and recce the route down beyond these rocks. Corporal Dawes, wait out until I give the signal. Lets keep radio contact minimal."

Jacobs clambered up the smooth face of the boulder, with Harris following. They made it to the top and disappeared from sight. After a few moments he made contact over the PRR.

"Route down ok, visuals good. Progress to target."

"Copy. Out."

Molly turned to the section. "Right, we keep tight to this rock. I will lead, it will be a short dash to those bushes where we wait and cover Lt Harris and Jacobs. We go one at at time. Wait out until you are called."

Molly picked her way down the slope, keeping as close as she could to the boulder. At the base she scanned the compound but seeing no defensive position mounted she made a break for the track. The ground beneath her feet was mostly fine dust and loose stones, keeping her balance and footing was a struggle and she relied on the momentum of her descent to keep her upright. After a few moments she reached the finer dust of the narrow track that ran along the ridge, and just beyond a small stand of thorn bushes. She threw herself on the ground beneath them and looked at where she had just come from.

"Watch your footing on the way down. Aston, you're next. Go!"

She watched as Aston made her way gingerly around the rock. She hesitated briefly and then followed Molly's route down. Molly could see that she was struggling to maintain her balance, but she made it across and joined her in the cover of the undergrowth.

One by one each of Molly's section followed, one or two stumbling and sliding on the steep slope, but they didn't seem to be the object of interest to anyone that might be lying in wait in the compound up the track. Eventually, all of them safely at the roadside, Molly radioed to Harris and Jacobs.

"All clear. We will cover sir"

"Copy that. Out."

Molly appraised the route they needed to take. Getting down from the boulder looked more of a drop than a climb, even with Harris and Jacobs' height. A patch of dense undergrowth lay in the lee of the rock, obscuring her view of the way down.

"Ok, eyes on the compound and also the higher ground to the west. If there are any snipers in the area this is where they are likely to be. Any sign of movement speak up."

She took a closer look through her binoculars and watched as Jacobs lowered himself down the side of the boulder. He disappeared from view behind the green of the bushes. Next followed Harris, shorter than Jacobs he dropped the last few feet out of view. A small fall of rocks rolled down the hill from where Molly had supposed they had landed.

Lowering her binoculars she thought she caught sight of movement a few metres away from Harris and Jacobs' position.

"Sir, I think there's movement in the undergrowth 3 metres to the right of your position."

"Can you see anything?"

"Nothing sir, but the bushes definitely moved."

They waited for 30 seconds or so, but Molly couldn't see any further movement.

"Anything Dawes?"

"Negative. Looks clear sir"

"Copy"

Keeping her eyes trained on the bushes she saw Jacobs emerge, followed a few moments later by Harris. They made their way down the steep slope and Molly swung her binoculars to check on the compound.

Suddenly she heard a loud crash and a bellowing sound. She looked back to see a large black shape emerge at speed from the undergrowth. It was headed away from Harris and Jacobs, who started to run as best they could towards the track. Jacobs was almost at the base of the slope, when above him Harris slipped on the loose rocks. He seemed to fall in slow motion. His legs buckled beneath him and he put out an arm to break his fall. It didn't seem to work, and he tumbled forwards, the weight of his pack propelling him down faster. There was a horrible crunching sound as he landed on his side against a large rock, the weight of the pack flipping him over as his body appeared to bounce down the slope, hitting large stones on his way down.

Molly was on her feet before she had barely registered that he had fallen. She grabbed the nearest member of the section by the arm. "Come with me"

Running up the hill towards the now stationary body Molly realised that whoever she was dragging along with her was making louder and louder noises of panic. "Mark, oh my god, Mark" Looking back Molly realised that she had grabbed Aston; tears of distress rolling down her face as she tried to find her feet and climb towards the limp body of Lt Harris. Above him Jacobs was carefully making his way down the ridge towards where he had stopped.

"Don't try and move him Jacobs" Molly shouted into her PRR. As she drew closer she could see that his leg lay at an unnatural angle to his body, and his head was lolling to the side.

Swinging her pack off her back she threw it towards Aston. "Private, I'm gonna need splints and bandages"

"Sir? Sir? Can you hear me?" she shouted, but no response came from Harris.

Molly was pulling on her gloves as she drew closer to him. He had come to rest on his side, his right leg curled behind and beneath him. His face was thick with dust, and covered in small cuts that started to ooze blood. A trickle of blood started to run from his nose.

Molly flipped the station on her radio to the main battle formation frequency.

"Charlie Charlie one, this is Romeo Romeo 5 alpha requesting cessation of operation in sector seven. Man down. Assessing injuries, possible medevac required. Over"

She moved to assess Harris, waiting for control to respond to her message. She started to pat him down, feeling for any additional breaks or fractures. His right leg was almost certainly broken. She hoped that this was the worst of it, but until he regained consciousness she was reluctant to explore further.

Beside her Aston remained unmoving, her distress at the sight of Harris growing more and more as each moment passed. "Mark! Mark! Oh my god." she kept on repeating. Something in Molly snapped and she turned on her, shaking her roughly.

"Aston" she hissed "get a fucking grip or get back down that hillside. This is not appropriate. This is your CO, he needs treatment. Now focus up and do as you are ordered. I need bandages and splints from my bergen." She looked up "Jacobs, we are going to have to immobilise this leg and stretcher him down. I need you to prepare the stretcher and be on hand to help.

Next to them Harris began to stir, he started to mumble and groan, his words slowly becoming more audible.

"Helen! Helen!"

"Sir, it's corporal Dawes. It looks like you've bust your leg. I'm gonna need you to tell me if it hurts anywhere else"

Harris seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, calling out and then screaming in pain. Molly could get very little sense from him as she tried to assess the extent of his injuries.

"Aston, prepare me a shot of morphine, I'm not going to get much sense out of him if he's screaming in pain" she ordered. Aston didn't move, her eyes fixed on Lt Harris. Jacobs moved swiftly to her side and took the bergen from her, locating the vial of morphine and passing the shot to his corporal.

As Molly administered the injection she tried again to speak to Harris. "Sir, you're gonna have to tell me where it hurts. We have to move you and I don't want to do that without a better assessment."

Harris' eyes were starting to glaze over as Molly grabbed her scissors from her chest strap and started to cut at his right trouser leg. The flesh beneath the shin was unbroken and bulged halfway down, a dark bruise starting to spread beneath the skin. "Sorry sir, this is going to hurt like hell" said Molly before quickly straightening his foot and binding splints to either side of his shin. Harris screamed at the sudden pain, then sank back down again, muttering as the pain and morphine started to take hold of him.

Molly was aware of a voice over the radio calling her name "Dawes, what's happening?" came the worried voice of her captain.

"Harris has taken a fall ma'am, looks like at least a broken leg, I'm still assessing for other injuries."

"I can see you, we'll be be with you in a moment"

Zoe was making her way along the track and climbed up to them just as Molly was fitting a neck brace to Harris. She was talking on her radio, liaising with control to get the evacuation under way and the exercise back on track.

"What happened?"

"Something came out of the bushes, Harris lost his footing and fell. He lost consciousness, and I've given him morphine for the pain. It's at least a broken leg, but I'm immobilising as best I can. I can't see anything else, but I don't want to move him in case."

"OK, they've scrambled the MERT from Nanyuki, but it will be another 15 minutes. We need to get this exercise moving again. Jones can lead 3 and 5 section, we'll stay to assist with the medevac." She looked at Jacobs who had his arm around a quietly sobbing Aston. "Jacobs, you and Aston join Corporal Jones now, Dawes and I have this."

She looked at Molly and raised her eyebrows, Molly gave a brief shake of her head and mouthed 'later'

* * *

Back at camp Molly stood in the ops tent waiting for Captain Dodson to arrive. They had waited on the hillside for the MERT and Harris had been taken to the field hospital at Nanyuki. She hadn't heard anything since. Following his evacuation they had rejoined the exercise, which had kept them busy for the remainder of the day. In the end the exercise had been a success, the medics worked well, the triage area was efficient and all were seen within a matter of hours.

She had filed her report on today's incident and was waiting to be debriefed before heading back to her tent for a change of clothes and a shower. Behind her the tent flap opened and Molly stood to attention.

Zoe turned to her, she looked pissed off.

"How long have you known about Aston and Harris?"

"Ma'am?"

"Don't fucking try and cover for her Molly. This has been going on for weeks apparently."

"I'm not covering."

"OK, lets go back a few days. You said that you had spotted some kind of crush on Aston's side. Now I hear that he's been banging her for weeks. Weeks! Didn't you spot anything?"

"I thought she was just mooning over a young officer. I didn't think he'd have anything to do with her. I didn't know that there was any reciprocation, well not until very recently."

Zoe surveyed her carefully.

"Why didn't you bring this to me when you found out?"

"I only found out yesterday. I haven't had a chance. Besides, I've spoken to Aston"

"Is she on a charge?"

"No. We had a little chat. Just to let her know I know sort of thing."

"And do you think that's sufficient?"

"For now, yes"

"Well it's not. The major got wind of it and right now Harris is looking at a charge of conduct not befitting an officer"

"I'm pretty sure she was willing boss"

"I'm sure she was, but he's in the shit because of his little run in with the infantry this morning, so they're flinging mud to see what else sticks. The world and his wife are singing like canaries right now, he's not got many friends."

"He's a bit of a pillock, but don't you think that's going a bit far?"

"I have no idea what the major is thinking, but I think this goes a further than being a 'bit of a pillock'. Harris has got an over-inflated idea of his own abilities, the last four weeks has made that very clear, and his navigational cock up this morning just sealed the deal. He was already skating around a serious review and being held down at second lieutenant for another year before all this blew up. He's not ready to lead. He doesn't take orders well, he's happy to bad mouth his superiors and experienced soldiers alike and now he's been caught with his trousers down. They're trawling deep and believe me there's plenty to find. Shagging about is one thing, shagging about in your own chain of command is something else. The mood the major is in he's not taking any prisoners."

"Hang on, what does this mean for Aston?"

"Exactly. And you as her corporal, and me as her CO"

"Shit"

"Indeed"

"Is he likely to admit to it?"

"He's a conniving worm, he'd probably sell his mother down the river for an easy ride. We've got to hope that it's not in his interests. Why didn't you say something Molly?"

"Hang on, when did this become my problem? He's my senior officer. It's not for me to take him in hand."

"So were you planning to tell me about this then?"

Molly sighed. "No. Well, not that bit. She's just a kid. We all do stupid things when we're starting out."

"What were you planning to tell me then?"

"Well, I don't have proof that it comes from Harris, so I was gonna do a bit more digging before coming to you"

"About what?"

"There's rumours going around the camp. Stuff about me. Me and Charles and Smurf. It's not true. I mean yeah, Charles and I are together and Smurf is dead, but the rumours are that I was shagging them both when we were in Afghan, and that Charles was shot and Smurf was killed because of it. That I only got where I am now because of Charles, and that I've been engineering it all this time. I overheard Aston talking about it, and she had heard it from Harris, you know, pillow talk and that."

"And you think it was Harris that started it?"

"Well, apparently the rumours are all over. Fingers...I mean Corporal Fletcher had heard them and was going to do a bit of digging before I decided whether to take it further. Harris is a bit of a bellend to everyone, but he seems to be singling me out, trying to undermine me and I can't work out why"

"You're right, it's not much to go on, but I wish you'd spoken to me earlier."

"I can't come running to you every time someone gives me a bit of stick. You know that. No favours Zoe, we agreed. I was trying to sort this my own way."

"I know, but it's gone a bit further than that now. I'm going to have to do some damage limitation if we are to rise out of the shit smelling like roses."

"Boss. There's something else."

"Oh god what now?" Zoe leant against the desk.

"Aston. She's a bit cocky. And I reckon she thinks she's in love with him. I wouldn't put it past her to stand up for him, especially as she thinks everyone is at it"

"What are you getting at?"

"Look at it from her point of view. She thinks I was at it like knives in Afghan, your reputation is, well let's say it's not a secret. She's likely to call us hypocrites if it looks like we're criticising her."

"So what if she does?"

"If Charles had made anything like a move on me out there I would have been all over him like a rash. I know I would have. I wouldn't have been any better than her. And you, how do I put this….you standing there telling her officers and ranks shagging is not the done thing is like a kid swearing he didn't eat any cake when there's chocolate smeared all over his gob. Aston needs to realise that she can't say anything for her own sake."

Zoe rubbed the back of her neck and sighed. She stood and walked behind her desk.

"Bring Aston in. It's time for Captain Bitch to get an outing. You know I hate doing this Molls, it's not my style."

* * *

Molly had found Aston in the women's quarters. It didn't look like she'd showered or changed since they got back. She lay on her bed, staring blankly at the side of the tent. She had dutifully and silently followed Molly as she took her to the ops tent. She watched her now, standing to attention in front of Zoe, resolutely looking somewhere over her right shoulder. Zoe stood and leaned on her desk, catching Aston's eye.

"I think we all know why we're here this evening don't we?"

"Ma'am"

"It's come to my attention that you and Lt Harris have become, lets call it 'emotionally involved' in recent weeks. Is that correct?"

"Yes ma'am" came the subdued reply.

"You aren't stupid Aston, you know that personal relationships in the same platoon are not allowed." Aston gave a slight nod and swallowed. "Today you found out why didn't you? You cannot be a good medic if you are going to pieces because your boyfriend is injured. You are the professional in this situation, the rest of your platoon, the soldier lying injured on the ground bleeding out can't be waiting for you to pull yourself together to treat them. That's what the medical corps are about. Involved but at a distance. Able to operate with a clear head at a time of stress and confusion. To do that you have to be able to beyond reproach. Behaviour that neither you or Lt Harris have displayed over recent weeks."

Zoe paused and walked around her desk. She perched against it, and continued to hold Aston's eye.

"Your name is Emma, is that right?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"And yet, when he was injured, Lt Harris was calling out for someone called Helen"

Aston nodded, glancing briefly at Molly.

"And Captain Akeman informs me that the private from the engineers who has also been spotted leaving Lt Harris' tent in the early hours of the morning isn't called Helen either. At any point today have you ever wondered who Helen is?"

A tear ran down Aston's face as she tried to keep her emotions in check.

"Well, let me solve this mystery for you. Helen is the name of Lt Harris' wife. A wife who is currently sitting at home in Aldershot waiting to hear news of her husband, injured on exercise. She's pregnant. Expecting their first child in a few months. I can't imagine that all the worry is good for her, or the baby. I'm pretty sure that none of us would want to add to her burden at this time would we?"

By now Aston's emotions had won out, she started sobbing, her hands over her face. Molly made a move towards her, wanting to comfort her but Zoe shook her head.

"In your favour Aston, you have at least been discrete, or I hope you have. You are on your first major exercise and your little outburst this afternoon could be explained away as being tired and overwrought. Maybe we can put the events of the last few weeks down to a lapse in judgement. You are fortunate that Corporal Dawes is prepared to stick up for you. She's of the opinion that we're all allowed one fuck up without making it onto your permanent record. As far as I'm concerned this is yours. I will cover your arse on this occasion, though from what I've heard you don't deserve such favours from your Corporal. Don't go thinking this is a clean slate. I will remember this, even if others don't."

"I suggest that you take the next few days R&amp;R as an opportunity to get your head sorted out and put this behind you. You are being handed an opportunity here Private Aston, I suggest you take it. Now, go and get yourself a shower and some food."

Aston stood to attention and Molly showed her out of the tent. She watched as she headed back to the her quarters alone. She turned to see Zoe, still perched on the desk, her shoulders slumped. She rubbed her hand over her face, letting out a long breath.

"Bleeding hell Zoe, you laid that on a bit thick didn't you?"

"Not really. He really is married. She really is expecting their first child soon. She's a nice enough woman, I don't want any of this getting back to her. Finding out her husband isn't the man he seems to think he is will be hard enough don't you think?"

"How is he?"

"He'll live. Broken leg, a few fractured ribs. Concussion. They're flying him back home in a couple of days"

Molly stood beside her friend. Up close she could see how tired and drained she was. The happy go lucky laid back Captain was as much of as a mask as the stern no nonsense one was. Molly gave her hand a squeeze and smiled weakly.

"Thanks Zo. I mean it."

"I know you do Molly." she smiled in return "You owe me a night out at the club of my choice, and a bucket of martini. Now, you go get fed and washed as well. There won't be any hot water by now." She pushed herself up from her desk. "I need to go see the Major."

* * *

**Phew. Thank you for sticking out to the end. I promise, no more epics like that for a while. There may be a bit of a lull in updates (yes, even more than usual) as I'm off on my holidays soon. If I can sneak in a chapter before I go I will, otherwise I'll keep on writing while I'm away, so hopefully when I'm in sniff of a wifi signal I will be able to update.**

**Author's notes**

**Seeing as I'm learning so much in the process of writing this I thought I'd share some of the more interesting information (well interesting to me, but I'm possibly a bit dull and I like shouting (usually wrong) answers at the tv when watching Only Connect).**

**The live firing ranges around Archers Post are 'cleared' by low-flying helicopters. This is to prevent wildlife and local herdsmen straying into the operational area. In 2006 of a group of soldiers on exercise shot a white rhino, apparently in self-defence. I wouldn't have liked to have been the British Ambassador at the time. **

**The personal role radio (PRR - gotta love those 3 letter acronyms!) system as used in OG have a range of approximately 500m, and are used to communicate within the section when on operation. Longer distance communication is done via another radio system using longer range frequencies known as the BOWMAN system. The wikipedia entry for this system is not very positive, soldiers claiming that BOWMAN stood for '****Better Off With Map And Nokia'**

**Conduct not befitting an officer isn't a real charge. The nearest actual offence under the Armed Forces Act 2006 is 'disgraceful conduct of a cruel or indecent kind', and a sexual act between consenting adults isn't generally considered to be indecent, which is why Molly makes the comment about Aston's consent.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Just squeezed this one in under the wire, it's a bit of a dump and run so I'm sorry if the grammar and spellings are all over the place.**

**Thank you everyone for your lovely reviews, I'm glad you are enjoying this still. A bit of shift in tone now as we all take a break from the exercise for a well-deserved bit of R&amp;R.**

* * *

"There he was, climbing up the ridge, all these sappy fucking medics scrabbling behind him like puppies, Gangy was screaming down the radio ordering him to stop and he turned his fucking radio off. I thought he was going to explode. He tore fucking strips of the medic's Captain. As soon as he got back to camp he was straight into the Col's office pushing for a full investigation."

Fingers winced and glanced across at Molly who was staring resolutely at her breakfast. Corp Jesson not the sharpest tool in the box. He was so caught up in his story that he'd forgotten that Molly was sitting with them.

"Anyway, turns out the stupid twat fell down the hill in the final push. Had to be medevaced out on a stretcher. Fractured skull I heard, but at least he didn't get hurt anywhere important."

"Broken leg, fractured ribs and concussion actually mate." said Molly looking up from her plate.

"What?"

"That's what he got. I put him on the stretcher"

"You in his platoon then?"

"Yep"

"Is it true that he was banging one of the medics? Which one was it? I bet it was that redhead, she looks proper filthy"

"Trust me mate, there's no one in my platoon desperate enough to give you a second glance"

"I'm prime rib, me"

"Tesco value hamburger more like"

"Alright, lets stop there before you lot turn me into a vegetarian. Don't you have somewhere to be Jesson" interrupted Fingers

"Nope"

"Just fucking do one alright? I need to speak to Dawsey and I don't want have to keep stopping to explain the big words to you."

"Ooh, getting feisty there Fletch."

"Piss off" replied Fingers standing and picking up Molly's plate "Come on Molls, let's get out of here"

"I hadn't finished that" she protested

"Well, you can have it to go then" He picked up her slice of toast and stuck it into her mouth, walking off to dump the empty plates at the clean up area.

Molly removed the toast from her mouth and rushed to catch up with him.

"Do that to me again and I'll rip your nuts off for earrings. What the hell has got into you?"

"Sorry Molls, Jesson's doing my head in."

"That much?"

"Its this lot, they're getting on my nerves."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Nope"

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Fingers leading across the parade ground, heading to a patch of shade cast by the shower block. The morning rush was over and there weren't many people about. He sat on the dusty earth and leant back against the portacabin wall.

"Come on, what is it?"

"You know I'd put in for promotion? Just heard back, they aren't going to put me forward this year."

"I'm sorry. Did they say why?"

"Don't think I've been in the regiment long enough. So I'm looking at another year of this lot before I can try again. They just pissed me about over it. If I'd known it was going to be a no I wouldn't have put in for it. I miss the old days when I didn't have to think about this bollocks. Just get told to do something and do it. Now it's all about positioning yourself and taking on extra stuff just to be noticed."

"We'll be home soon and then it will be Christmas. You just need a break from this lot. Plus dealing with someone like gods gift back there is bound to do your nut in after a while."

"Dunno if Christmas back home really counts as having a break. My sister's moved back in with Mum and the house is bloody chaos. I'm looking at R&amp;R sleeping on the sofa with my nephews shooting nerf darts at my head."

"Sorry mate."

"What about you? How's it all going your end?"

"Good I think. Still getting used to being a corporal. I feel like Aston's given me a bit of a baptism of fire what with her antics. Still not sure if she's cut out to be a CMT."

"Is she the one that was having it off with your Lt?"

"Turns out she was only one of them."

"Really? Horny little bastard. How did he manage it?"

"Its a mystery. I mean he's not much in the looks department, and he always seemed to have as much charisma as a dose of the shits to me."

Fingers shook his head. "Talking of horny bastards, is your Captain for real?"

Molly sighed. "Look, she's a good mate, but let's just say she has form. Be warned, she's up for a good time, not a long time."

Fingers gave her a broad grin. "Sounds ideal"

"She expects you to keep this quiet. You go mouthing off and she will find a way to make your life hell. She's related to half the army." Fingers kept on grinning. "And I don't want to know anything. Got me?"

"Yes boss"

* * *

Molly hadn't spotted Aston in the mess at breakfast so she swung past the women's quarters on the way back to her tent. Physically she was in better shape than she had the night before, she'd changed her clothes and it looked like she'd managed a shower, but she still looked like she was in daze. Molly discreetly nodded to the other girls in the tent and they made themselves scarce.

She took a seat on the bed next to her.

"He's bust his leg, concussion and hurt some ribs. He'll be on the plane home in a day or so."

"He could rot in hell for all I care, bastard"

"Come on. You can't turn feelings off just like that. I take it you didn't know about the others?"

"No! I wouldn't do that sort of thing. I wouldn't have gone near him if I'd known he had a wife. Why did he do it?"

"Why does anyone do it? Because they can? Because they want to? You aren't responsible for what he did."

"I'm such an idiot."

"You misjudged things, don't be too hard on yourself"

"How can I face Captain Dodson again? She hates me"

"Don't be such a drama queen. She doesn't hate you, she's disappointed, and she's been left with a lot crap to sort out. She was angry last night, but she's fair and she's honest. She's not going to put this on your record and you will be able to put it past you."

"As for facing her, you're going to have to do it so don't spend your time stressing over it. You've got a few days rest now, believe me there will be all sorts going on to knock you off the top gossip spot soon enough. Just go out there and face up to things. You'll get some shit, but you can handle it."

"I'm sorry Corp. you know about the stuff I said about you."

Molly sighed and looked her in the eye. "I appreciate the apology Aston. My private life is just that. Mine and private. The stuff you heard is not true. I'm not going to go into details and I'm not justifying myself to anyone. I've worked hard to get here. It's not been some easy ride. Now, have you had some breakfast?"

"I don't think I could face it Corp"

"Come on. Service is almost over. There won't be much left by now. And there won't be many people in the mess. Do you want me to get one of the girls or Jacobs to go with you?"

"God no"

"Well then, up on your feet and get going. You're going to have to face the world sooner or later, best get it over and done with"

Aston reluctantly got to her feet. Molly watched her smooth her hands over her plait, take a deep breath and walk out of the tent towards the mess. She gave her 2 minutes and then followed her out of the tent.

* * *

Molly made her way tentatively down the rickety wooden steps of the verandah. The tray she carried was overloaded with bottles and packets of crisps and she was biting her lip in concentration as she tried to keep her balance on the uneven timbers. A member of the club's staff came rushing over with his hands out to take the tray from her. She looked up at him and shook her head, giving him a broad smile. She took her eyes off the tray and the drinks wobbled precariously. Corporal Jones winced, fearing for the fate of his first cold drink in weeks. Molly quickly turned her attention back to the tray, and saved the drinks from ending up all over the lawn of Nanyuki Sports Club.

"Good god Dawes, you really can't carry a tray can you?" he said as she reached the table, dumping the drinks down awkwardly. He snatched a coke and a packet of crisps as the hands of 3 and 5 section converged on the tray.

"Ok, I'm no waitress - oi you lot save one for me, I got the bloody round in" Molly grabbed a coke and sat down in the plastic chair next to him. "So then, are you going to tell me why you've got a face like a slapped arse?

"Something and nothing Dawes" He took a long drink from the bottle, savouring the cold sweet fizz on his tongue.

Molly was right, he was probably too preoccupied to be out in company right now, but they had all been given a few hours pass and had taken the opportunity to get away from the camp, however briefly. He had hoped that Captain Dodson had forgotten her promise of a little chat in the drama of yesterday, but in reality he'd just been pushed down the queue. She had caught up with him this morning and given him a proper going over about his failure to speak up and deal with Harris as he'd marched them up the wrong hill. He was too experienced to pretend he hadn't noticed, but in truth he was fed up to the back teeth with people like Harris.

He'd been in for ten years now. The officers were getting younger and younger, and he was starting to feel like the grumpy old man of the platoon. He was growing tired of covering for their shortcomings and watching them rise up the ranks. He wasn't a fool, he knew he was drifting, the problem was that he was drifting towards the end of his 12 years. He only had one more year to go before it was decision time, he had to piss or get off the potty. The Captain had reminded him about it again this morning. She had first brought it up a few months ago, she had noticed his growing detachment and wondered if it was time for a new challenge. She'd looked out some training opportunities and asked him to think about it. He was unsure. He didn't know if he fancied going back to college to retrain as a nurse or paramedic, feeling old and past it in new surroundings. Either way he knew she was right. He was feeling stale. If he stayed in he needed to do something else, if he left he had to prepare for civvy street.

"What time is your lift turning up?" he asked Molly, keen to change the subject

"Any time I think. I sent him a text when we got on the minibus. Are you sure you're ok to get this lot back in one piece?"

"I think I can manage it, I've been given orders to make sure that they don't get shitfaced, so I'm not planning on letting them stay long. How exactly did you wangle a 72 hour pass in the middle of an exercise?"

"I asked. The rest has got to be down to my irrepressible charm, so you've got no chance"

"Piss off"

Molly sighed and took a swig of her coke. "It's a bit nice here, isn't it?"

They looked around at the club grounds. The buildings were what some might call the worse for wear, but they held an old world charm: black timbers and white windows, a shallow pitched roof and a deep verandah that ran the length of the main building. Clusters of tables were spread across a green lawn dotted with trees which provided some much needed shade. Across from the clubhouse there were another two wooden huts, they housed the club's changing rooms and toilets.

It was a beautiful day. The sky was a deep blue, with only a few white clouds bobbing slowly across the horizon. The air was cooler than it had been on exercise, the club being at a higher altitude. The trees around them were full of birds, Molly watched as they flew down to the ground, hopping about in the grass looking for scraps of food.

"It's a damn sight better than being at camp, that's for sure." Corporal Jones raised his bottle and clinked it against Molly's. "Congratulations on surviving your first major exercise Corporal."

* * *

An hour had passed and Jonesey had rounded up the last of 3 and 5 section and got them onto a minibus back to camp. Molly was enjoying the peace and solitude when her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a message from Charles.

_Hi gorgeous. Am out &amp; about today but will call you later at A&amp;Ds. xC_

Molly flicked through the photos on her phone. She stopped at her favourite, a photo of Charles taken in the summer. She was between intakes and had bunked off work early to meet him at the pub. The sun was shining, he was looking relaxed and smiling into the camera. His hair was a little longer than it had been in his army days, and a curl was slipping over his forehead. The next photo was taken the same evening, it was both of them, Molly was tucked close to Charles' side, his arm around her waist, they were looking at each other and laughing at a shared joke.

She suddenly missed him very much. She knew this feeling from her previous deployments and exercises. The work was so full-on that days could pass before you had enough time to stop, but a bit of down time and the feelings of missing home and your loved ones would creep up and ambush you. She missed having him to come home to at night, he would listen to her concerns and always be on hand to offer support or help her with an issue she had. A little too keen at times, she was sometimes very glad that he was no longer in the army, he saw a problem and wanted to solve it, even if it meant sticking his oar in when she didn't want it.

She was lost in her thoughts when she heard a familiar sounding voice.

"Molly"

She turned quickly to see a man, dressed in a check shirt and tan trousers, a baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes, obscuring his face.

"Archie? Bloody hell, you gave me a fright" she got to her feet and hugged him, he bent to kiss her cheek.

"Jesus Dawes you were miles away." He removed his cap and his thick blonde hair stuck up at wild angles. His face was tanned and rugged, deep laughter lines around his blue eyes.

"You're looking great" she remarked.

"I don't know about that. Less up here" he rubbed his head "and more round here" and then slapped his waist. "Dawn tells me the minute I start getting hairy ears she's on the first plane back to the UK. You look bloody knackered by the way."

"Do they do refunds at that charm school you went to? You might want to look into that."

"Sorry I'm late, I had do a last minute run to the supermarket as I was coming into town. I thought I'd get it before I picked you up, but they keep on moving all the stuff about and it took me forever to find anything. Dawn's planning on giving you lunch back home, but if you're peckish you should get something here, we're at least an hour to get back."

"Nah, I'm good."

Archie bent to pick up her kit bag and Molly instinctively reached out to take it from him.

"I can manage that"

"Ahh, but always carry a lady's bags - that charm school stuff is coming back to me now Dawes"

Molly looked up at Archie "Has anyone ever told you that your voice sounds a lot like Charles'? You even speak the same."

"The last person to say that was matron. I think you're hallucinating. Too much sun for your little English head"

"Matron!" giggled Molly. "How posh are you two? Bunch of bloody Ruperts"

"I won't have a word said against Matron, she was a saint amongst women, plus she never noticed when we used to steal her sherry the old soak"

"Sorry Archie, all I can hear is rah rah rah rah rah, you're gonna have to talk English, not public schoolboy"

"You might want to be nicer to me than that Dawes. I know all of Charles' secrets. If you're very good I might even share them" Archie winked at her.

* * *

Molly had no idea what to expect about the drive back to Archie's ranch. When she thought of farms she thought of green rolling hills and barns, black and white cows grazing in pastures. This was nothing like that. They turned off the tarmac road in Nanyuki, and made their way down what looked like a dusty track lined on both sides with small brightly painted shacks offering everything from puncture repairs to hairdressing. The road was badly rutted and people drove on whatever side had the better surface, cutting across each other and dodging pedestrians, bicycles and donkey carts as they went.

The track eventually evened out, and the countryside around them opened up, scrubby grass and small bushes mostly. The road wound on and on, with Archie turning onto other smaller unmarked tracks. Sometimes they were driving through open plains, and then they would reach long stretches of wire and post fencing. Archie explained that these were mostly private game reserves. Forty dusty bumpy minutes later he turned onto a small track marked by a large white boulder. He unfastened his seatbelt and rolled down the window.

"This is us Dawsey" he remarked "you can take off your seat belt if you like now we aren't on public roads"

"That was a public road?"

"Welcome to Africa" he smiled.

"Where's the house?" asked Molly

"About 4kms that way" remarked Archie, laughing at Molly's incredulous face

They made their way slowly across the plain. Molly was getting used to the landscape now and was noticing the differences with where she had trained. There was more undergrowth here, larger trees and less rocks. The land gently rolled, and she could make out a line of greener trees in the middle distance.

From the corner of her eye she spotted an animal in the undergrowth.

"Shitting hell, that's a zebra" she yelled, pointing at the animal. "I thought Charles said you had cows"

Archie laughed. "I do, a few thousand, but I make them share with the local wildlife. Do you want the full safari guide experience?"

"Is there anything here that's gonna eat me?"

"We are on the edge of the territory of a lion pride, and there are hyenas and leopards. Lots of plains game like impala and tommies, sometimes elephants as well. The river is too cold for crocs though."

"And there was me feeling scared of the cows."

"You'll be fine. We haven't lost a guest yet." He grinned at her "Don't worry Molly, the house is fenced off it's been years since the lions got in" he threw his head back and laughed.

They carried on their slow progress to the house, crossing a small river and climbing over a series of low hills. Eventually the track led towards a cluster of green trees, surrounded by a fence. Archie stopped the car and jumped down to open the gate. Driving though Molly found herself in a large yard, tractors and trailers parked up and a range of low sheds and stores lined up along one side. Across the other side of the yard, tucked behind more exotic looking trees she could just make out the corner of a low red brick bungalow with a green corrugated iron roof.

"It's safe to come out Dawes, I've shut the gate" said Archie, opening her door. "You're ok with dogs, right?"

As soon as Molly reached the ground she heard barking and a small pack of dogs came tearing out from the direction of the house. They were a motley bunch, from a jack russell to something enormous that came up past Molly's waist. Their tongues were lolling and their tails wagging as they set about Archie and sniffed at Molly.

Following behind the dogs came Dawn, dressed in shorts and a t shirt.

"Molly!" she wrapped her up in a big hug "It's fantastic to see you, I'm so glad you could make it"

"I wouldn't get too close if I were you, I must stink. I don't remember the last time I had a hot shower"

"Well there's lots of hot water here, and we'll get that uniform cleaned before you need to get back"

"There's no need, it will only get filthy again next week"

"Archie - can you take Molly's bag to her room and let Esther have the shopping. I'll give her the tour" she turned to Molly "I can't tell you how lovely it is to have female company. I warn you, Euan thinks you are here to play soldiers with him"

"How old is he now?"

"Nearly four. He's playing on the verandah I think. Let's go find him."

They made their way towards the house, Dawn was chatting away excitedly Molly could barely take it all in. She walked them to the furthest end of the garden and then turned back to the house. Molly could see that they had approached the house from the back, this side was much more open, with a deep verandah, partially shaded by trellis with a creeper growing up it. She saw Archie step out of the house before turning her attention back to Dawn who was still talking away. The huge dog Molly had met earlier lolloped from the house and made his way towards them.

"I'm sorry Molly, I'm prattling on and you look a bit dazed. It's a lot to take in. You must be tired and hungry. Lets get to the house, lunch was ready a while ago."

As they grew closer to the house Molly could make out Archie's voice coming from the verandah and a high pitched giggle that must belong to Archie and Dawn's son, Euan.

_"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"_

A loud roar came from behind the creeper, followed by a scuffling sound and a squealing giggle. This was followed by another roar and the sound of furniture falling over and a glass smashing onto the floor.

Molly and Dawn rushed to the verandah. A bright eyed boy was standing a chair looking down at shards of glass littering the concrete. Two men were scrabbling on the ground trying to pick up the largest pieces of glass.

"Archie, what the bloody hell are you up to?" shouted Dawn

"Sorry Dawn, that was me, we got a bit carried away reading to Euan"

"They were being wild things mummy" piped up Euan jiggling dangerously on the chair as Dawn stepped over the broken glass to pick him up.

"Charles?" said Molly.

* * *

**Yes, a little R&amp;R surprise there for Molly. Let's hope she likes surprises.**

**Copyright to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, one of my son's favourite books.**

**For those of you interested in the Kenyan side of things I'm basing Archie's ranch in an area close to Nanyuki called Laikipia. Its a large plain that lies between Mt Kenya in the East the the rift valley lake of Baringo to the West.**


	7. Chapter 7

**So, here we are, finally seeing Molly and Charles together. I hope you like my view of them as a couple. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I'm glad you've taken your time to carry on this journey with me.**

* * *

"I don't know, she doesn't look too chuffed to me."

"She's tired, you remember how these things are. _Up hill down dale, go this way, no that way, over there, come back_. At the end of five weeks you're so bloody exhausted you don't know who you are any more"

"I think I've misjudged this. I know I have. She's really not into surprises. Her mum tried to lay on this big bash for her 21st. I spent most of it shouting at her through the toilet door trying to get her to come out."

Charles leant his head back and covered his eyes with his forearm. "Bollocks. I've cocked up again."

He and Archie were sat on the verandah, mugs of coffee on the table in front of them. Lunch was over and Molly had gone for a shower and a lie down, Dawn was trying to settle Euan for a nap.

Molly had been quiet over lunch, she had been commandeered by Euan much of the time. He kept up a near constant commentary on his toys, what he'd seen on TV and singing songs that started out as Old MacDonald or something similar but quickly morphed into him singing about poo and other bodily functions. After lunch Molly had made her excuses and left them to their coffees.

"You're worrying about nothing. Let her rest and she'll be as right as rain in a few hours. She's by far the most level headed girlfriend you've ever had."

"She's the scariest one"

"She can't be. Even scarier than fruit loops Francesca?"

Charles laughed "Much, much scarier. A bit of mild stalking is nothing compared to the things Molly's capable of."

"Remember the time fruit loops caught you with that girl at Johnno's party? She was waiting outside every lecture and tutorial you had to escort you back to college for weeks in case you spoke to another female."

"That wasn't funny"

"No, what was hilarious is that you let her, you bloody sap."

"I was trying to let her down gently, I wasn't exactly 'talking' to that girl at the party you know"

"And what about when you went through your Byronic phase and that girl tried to carve Kate Bush lyrics into your arm?"

"How do you remember all this?" groaned Charles.

"How do you explain a scar that spells 'HEA' to Molly?"

"It got a bit mangled on the first tour, you can only make out the first bit of H now"

_"Heathcliff, it's meeeeee, katheeeeee" _sang Archie loudly. Charles laughed and hit him in the face with a cushion.

"Archie will you bloody well pipe down" said Dawn stepping onto the verandah " I've only just got Euan down and I don't want a repeat of last night."

She sat on the sofa opposite the men and tucked her legs underneath her. "Molly seemed quiet at lunch. Still, I expect she's tired"

"Oh don't you start, he's already paranoid about it"

"Why?"

"I forgot Molly really doesn't like surprises."

"Nonsense, everyone likes a surprise, deep down"

"Not my Molly"

"Well then Charles, there's only one thing for it, go in there and grovel" Dawn smiled her sweetest smile and took a sip of her coffee.

* * *

Molly was drifting in and out of a doze when she felt the bed beside her sink. A familiar body pressed against her, its long limbs spooning up against her. Instinctively she relaxed into the warmth, and drifted deeper into sleep.

Her dreams were fitful, glimpses and snippets of the last few hours, gazing at the sunlight flickering through a canopy of leaves, the murmur of voices around her, the revving of an engine, the sound of birdsong drifting through the air. Through it all she could hear a familiar voice, becoming more distinct and pulling her consciousness up through the fog of dreams and into the present.

"Molly. Wake up Molls. I brought you some tea"

She stretched and opened her eyes. Charles sat on the bed beside her, his hand resting on her thigh. She sat up and reached for the tea.

"Am I forgiven?"

"Dunno what you're talking about"

"You don't seem pleased to see me."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, for starters you haven't even given me a hug"

"What do you want some kind of slow mo run to your arms? This isn't the movies Charles."

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed off are you?"

"Who says I'm pissed off?"

Charles cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. Molly blew on her tea and avoided his gaze. She took a sip and glanced up at him. He was still looking at her, waiting patiently for a reply.

A minute or so ticked by, neither of them prepared to give in to the other. Molly continued to sip her tea and Charles waited for an answer. Eventually Molly relented.

"Let's call it an eight"

"An eight? That's pretty serious. What makes it an eight?"

"Don't take the piss. Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you?"

"You were gonna see me in ten days, couldn't you just wait? Why go to the bother of engineering all this?"

"Ahh, now we're getting somewhere"

"Up yours Charles. What would have happened if I didn't get leave? You'd have just wasted how much money on some pointless jolly? Money we can't afford to piss up the wall either."

"You were always going to get leave"

"And why is that exactly? Because the high and mighty Major James declared it? How many strings did you pull to make this happen?"

"I asked Zoe to put in a good word"

"And who else?"

"No one"

"I don't believe you"

"I'm not lying Molly"

Molly huffed into her tea mug and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, wriggling away from Charles' touch.

He turned to face her and continued in a more placatory tone "I wasn't planning to be here when I suggested you come visit Archie. I wanted you to see him because he's my oldest and closest friend and we don't see him enough. I want you two to know each other, and neither of us can afford to fly across the world and see each other. I thought it was a good opportunity. And I thought you might actually like it."

He reached across and brushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry if you think that's pulling strings. Truth is I don't really have any strings to pull. It's been years Molls, the army and I have moved on."

"That's what you think"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Everywhere I go Charles, I'm Molly Dawes, that private that copped off with her Captain. It's always that before anything else. Even here, even after all this time, that's what the whole bloody camp hears about me. You might have moved on, but the army hasn't"

Charles could hear the frustration in her voice. He didn't understand what had set it off this time, but it wasn't the first time she had leapt on their relationship as the source of problems in her professional life.

"Oh Molly, are you sure?"

"Of course I'm bleeding sure. I've been putting up with the whispers and nudges this entire exercise. I barely kept control of my section because of it. It was vicious Charles. They were saying some horrible things about us in Afghan, us and Smurf and the shooting. Like I'd cooked it all up to feather my own nest. The whole bleeding camp."

Molly put her head in her hands and tried to stem the rising tears. She breathed deep and wrestled the tears and anger back into their box. Charles watched her silently, desperate to reach out and touch her, to stroke her back and comfort her but he recognised her anger was too raw and he would likely just set off her temper. He would bide his time and bring it up later when she was calmer.

"Did you sort it?"

"In the end" replied Molly, her voice muffled by her hands.

"I'm glad. I'm sorry if you had to deal with shit because of us Molly. I know it isn't fair." Molly looked up, her eyes were glistening with unshed tears and Charles longed to scoop her up into his arms. The vulnerability in her expression was quickly replaced by a defiance; he knew this conversation was far from over.

"You still haven't answered me. If you or Archie can't afford to visit each other then what are you doing here? You better say we've won the lottery or something, we agreed we were saving for the house."

"You remember that meeting I had at the MoD?" Molly nodded,"Well, they aren't going to give us a grant for the project, too many cuts or something. Instead they offered to lend us BATUK, or at least some of the resources. Kit, personnel and that, they're even letting us use some of the exercise area. Its a pretty good outcome really, we won't have to put so much of the funding into equipment which means we can move the project forward. They wanted me to come out here to meet with people, start making plans. I might have moved the timing up by a week or so, but that's all. I didn't even have to pay for the flight up here from Nairobi. I'm not pissing our savings up the wall. I promise."

Molly considered his words carefully. She was still angry, but she knew she should have trusted him more over the money, he wasn't like her dad, but they had agreed; saving to extend the house was their priority. She was earning more now with her promotion, and his salary, though less than he'd been getting in the army wasn't too bad. They had been in the house for a few years now, and since then the market had moved on. They couldn't afford to move to a bigger place now, but with some saving they hoped to extend to make some room for a future family.

Molly sometimes thought it was ridiculous that they felt they needed more space. The house she had grown up in was smaller than where they lived now and there had been six kids in there. But with an office for Charles to work at home and a bedroom for Sam and a room for them; that was all three bedrooms taken up. Molly insisted that they keep a bedroom for Sam, even though between boarding school and shared custody between Rebecca and Charles meant that it was empty for most of the year.

"I'm sorry, I should have trusted you over that, it's just that I really want to feel like we're nearly there with the house"

"We both do Molly"

Molly inched her hand forward and took hold of his. She entwined her fingers with his and shuffled closer towards him.

"What are we at now?" Charles asked

"A two."

"Still a two? So what next?"

"I don't like being kept in the dark about stuff. Why not just tell me you would be here?"

"Because I wanted to surprise you. You really are a prize numpty sometimes."

"Oi, that's my word. Haven't you got anything better than that?"

Charles grinned and pulled her close, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "Have we reached zero yet?"

"Nope. You're gonna laugh though"

"Why"

"I don't have anything to wear"

"You look pretty good to me"

Molly had opened her kit bag after her shower and realised that she didn't really have anything that clean to wear. Her clothes were clean enough to last another few days on exercise, but not really good enough for company. She'd spotted Charles's t shirt, and had put it on to sleep in, beyond that she had hoped Dawn wouldn't be offended if she asked to borrow something.

"I know you and Archie are close and that, but this get up isn't really what I had in mind for a weekend with your best mate"

Charles' hand was back on her bare thigh, his fingers stroking and circling higher up her leg, pushing the hem of the t shirt up. His fingertips brushed the edge of her knicker elastic as he raised the t shirt over her hip.

"Hmmm, what do we have here? Are these regulation knickers?"

Molly giggled and slapped his hand away.

"Stop it. I had to wear these, there's nothing clean left."

"No complaints from me, I like them, they're so... proper. All the more fun when I have you doing things that no corporal should do with a major." He waggled his eyebrows.

"Reservists don't count"

"Oh but they do" Charles' hands continued up her hips again, pulling the t shirt out from underneath her bottom. He knelt on the floor in front of her, taking hold of her thighs and wrapping them around his waist. His hands continued their journey underneath her shirt as he leaned in, nuzzling her neck. Her breathing grew quicker and shallower as his hands reached her breasts, his thumbs skimming over her nipples.

"This isn't helping with the clean clothes thing" she managed to blurt out, in danger of losing the thread of the conversation as Charles made a series of small nipping kisses along her jawline.

"Well Dawes, it's a delicate thing"

"Your ego?"

"No, you minx, you are. Hopefully I've only just got you down to a zero. One wrong move and you'll be at a four and I'll need a cold shower before I'm fit to be seen in public"

Molly tightened her thighs about his waist and drew him against her. She ground herself against him "Tell me"

"OK, but if you go off on one I'm not talking you down again. I might have packed a few civvies for you in my case. I know how minging you are after exercise."

Molly drew back from him and he held his breath, waiting for the onslaught. She looked him in the eye, her face serious.

"Ten points for a Major" she grinned, drawing him close. "You need to make them count."

"I always do Dawsey" he whispered against her lips as he tipped her back onto the bed, his fingers gripping the sturdy elastic waistband of her knickers.

* * *

An hour or so later a more relaxed and happier Molly emerged from their room dressed in clean and to her delight, non uniform clothes, leaving Charles to sleep off the after-effects of their reunion.

She made her way down a corridor lined with old fashioned looking pictures in heavy frames. Turning the corner she walked the lounge, a curious mix of more heavy old fashioned furniture and modern vibrant soft furnishings. She stopped to look at a brightly coloured and intricately beaded disk hanging on the wall.

"I know, it's a bit of a mish-mash isn't it?"

She turned to see Dawn standing in the doorway that lead out to the verandah.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I hope you didn't think I was being nosy"

"Be as nosy as you like. When I took on Archie I apparently took on every item of furniture his ancestors shipped out here eighty odd years ago. I do what I can but he's rather attached to it all. I drew the line at putting Euan in the cot that every Wright child has slept in since about 1930 and had my parents send me out something that complies with basic health and safety."

"Tell me about it. When I moved in with Charles his mother foisted a load of antiques on us that are apparently heirlooms. Big creepy wardrobes and sideboards and a load of silver cutlery. According to her a home isn't complete without cake forks. I don't think I know anyone else who owns a sideboard." She grinned at Dawn "Well, I suppose I do now."

"Looks like we've saddled ourselves with a pair of poshos haven't we?"

"You aren't one of the boarding school lot then?"

"God no, I went to a comprehensive in Nottingham." replied Dawn "I was about to wake Euan and have a cuppa outside. Archie is out looking at a ditch or something but we thought we'd drive out somewhere for sundowners later. Do you fancy it?"

"What's a sundowner?"

"Sorry, that's colonial posho for a beer in the evening. Or whatever else you fancy drinking."

"Sounds good to me. Charles is sleeping, should I wake him?"

Dawn grinned knowingly "I'd let him sleep for a bit if I were you. He and Archie were up to the small hours drinking and reminising about the old days. I called it a night when they started on the second round of quoting Withnail and I. I had to go out at 3am and tell them to pack it in when their singing woke Euan. My money is on a repeat performance tonight."

Molly laughed "Oh, this I have to see. Archie promised me some dirt on Charles earlier, I hope he'll come through"

"Well, not too late I hope, you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow"

"Do I?"

"Whoops. Me and my big gob." Dawn looked at Molly sheepishly "I thought Charles would have mentioned it"

"Mentioned what?"

"He's taking you camping"

* * *

Molly threw open the door to their room and slammed it shut behind her, causing the water glass on the bedside table next to Charles to rattle. He sat up with a start and blearily looked at Molly.

"Camping! Bleeding camping! What the fuck do you think I've been doing for the last five weeks?"

"What?"

"Dawn tells me we're going camping tomorrow"

"I thought you liked camping with me?"

"Sitting in a freezing tent eating cold beanfeast half way up a scottish mountain?"

"You loved that holiday"

"I did once we found a pub and B&amp;B"

"Nonsense. It will be great. We haven't done camping here. It's exciting"

"I was hoping for a rest Charles"

"You and me under the African skies, what could be more restful than that?"

"Do you want a list?"

Charles pulled her down onto the bed, sitting her on his lap."Come on Molly, take a chance. It will be fantastic. Besides, its only one night."

"Why do I keep on letting you talk me into this stuff?"

"Because you love me?" Charles laid on his best impish grin.

"I need my head read" replied Molly, holding his his face in her hands and lowering her mouth to his.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you to everyone who has been patiently waiting for me to pick this up again. I feel duty bound to advise you to lower your expectations before reading. Getting back into this story has been a slow and painful process and after staring at this chapter for the best part of 2 months I just can't face looking at it anymore. It is also a bit of a filler chapter, so let's just let it get us to where we need to go. The next chapters are better, I promise.**

Piles of canvas bags and coolboxes were neatly being packed away into the back of a long wheelbase Land Rover. Charles and Archie worked quickly and efficiently, the task so familiar to both of them that was almost unconsciously done. As they worked the conversation flowed as if they had never been apart.

"So then, do you want me to put some champagne on ice for your return?" Archie asked doing his best to strike a nonchalant tone.

"I should never have opened my big mouth" groaned Charles, "Save your champagne. I have it all planned out for Christmas. It will be perfect"

"You're forgetting the loose cannon in this scenario mate. You." said Archie, taking a break to lean against the open rear door "I tell you, that place is amazing and you won't be able to contain yourself. You'll be on one knee before you know it."

"It's been five years of waiting, I'm not going to stumble at the last hurdle, believe me. Besides I don't have the ring with me" Charles smiled to himself satisfied he had found his checkmate.

"Not having a ring won't be the problem, keeping your emotional incontinence in check is the real issue. I bet you a hundred quid you won't be able to stop yourself"

"Done" laughed Charles shaking Archie's outstretched hand "It will be a pleasure to take your money Wright"

"OK, that should be everything you need - tent, cool box, bedding. I take it Molly is bringing your balls in her handbag." Archie slammed the rear door of the Land Rover shut and threw the keys to Charles.

He rolled his eyes at the jibe but refused to rise to the bait. "Thanks for this mate, I appreciate it"

"So you should, I don't let just anyone drive the old girl" he tapped the side of the vehicle fondly. "Lots of memories. Lots of good times. Just keep an eye on the temperature gauge, she's been a bit thirsty on the oil recently. We looked her over in the workshop a couple of days ago and all seems OK, I think she's just getting old."

"Now you tell me"

"It will be fine - there's spare oil and a full jerry can in the back, but you should be able to get there and back on one tank, even with your old granny driving."

"I do not drive like a granny"

"Oh dearie me, I seem to be going 50 miles an hour, I must slow down" Archie mocked, miming slamming on his brakes.

"Piss off" Charles lightly cuffed Archie around the head, knocking his sunglasses off.

"Watch it"

"Sorry" Charles bent to retrieve the glasses from the dusty ground, earning jab in the gut from Archie as he stood up.

The situation soon descended into a playful scuffle between the two, Charles' height advantage eventually winning out as he got Archie in a headlock. Archie was struggling to pull himself out of Charles' grip when Molly and Dawn emerged from the back door of the house.

"Seriously. How old are you? Do I have to put you both on the naughty step?" sighed Dawn.

Molly laughed. She was seeing another side to Charles here. He was playful, childlike even, as he and Archie slipped back into their friendship easily. It was obviously deep and long standing, they behaved more like brothers than anything else, something that cheered Molly. She had been surrounded by siblings most of her life, despite the petty annoyances and squabbles she loved being part of a loud boisterous family. She often felt sorry for Charles, an only child, moving often with his father's work, the big gloomy house in Bath, being sent to boarding school at a young age. Watching him and Archie she realised he had made a brotherly relationship for himself.

"Here, let me help you with that" said Molly, walking over to them with a mischievous grin on her face. Charles grinned back, a playful look in his eyes. He inclined his head, indicating for Molly to take up position by Archie.

"Hey that's not fair" came the muffled voice of Archie, still held firmly against Charles' side "you're a bloody cheat James."

Molly reached up and tickled Charles in the ribs causing him to yelp and release his hold on Archie who leapt free. "Ha!" he exclaimed.

Charles rounded on Molly snatching her up and throwing her over his shoulder. "Traitor! What happened to 100% by my side?" She squealed, clinging onto him as he spun her around, finally depositing her on her feet in the dusty farmyard. "Such insubordination. You're on latrine digging duty now young lady"

"I never followed orders when you were my CO, why start now?" she teased him, dodging away as he made a playful lunge towards her. She scuttled towards Archie, hiding behind him.

"Quick Molly, to the Land Rover!" yelled Archie and they both made a run towards it but Charles cut them off. They turned and ran back towards the house as Euan tottered down the steps investigating what all the noise was. Archie snatched him up, and holding him against his chest he whispered loudly in his ear.

"We need your help. Uncle Charles is being a monster. How do we get rid of monsters?"

"Tickles!" came the excited reply.

"Good idea. Have you got your tickling fingers ready?" Euan giggled and wiggled his fingers in front of him. "Molly, how are your tickling skills?"

Molly copied Euan's actions "Ready!" she said grinning at the absurdity of the game.

"What about you mummy, are you joining us?" he asked Dawn.

"Oh no you don't Wright" Charles exclaimed, grabbing Dawn by the waist and holding her in front of him like a human shield.

"Help!" yelled Dawn joining in the game, "The monster has got me!"

"We'll save you mummy!" came the battle cry from Archie as they ran towards Charles. Dawn wriggled away and they all set about tickling him. He fell to the ground laughing as the tickling onslaught continued.

"No, I surrender!" he cried out "Mercy!" hamming it up for Euan's benefit. Euan was sitting on top of him, bouncing on his stomach in celebration. Charles was lying on the ground, covered in dust from head to foot. Archie lifted Euan onto his shoulders and started running a victory lap around the farmyard.

Molly clutched her side, laughing so much she'd given herself a stitch. Charles stood up, patting himself down and shaking the dust from his hair.

"I'll deal with you later Dawsey" he growled, "No bloody loyalty at all". She looked up at him, caked in dust a big smile on his face and his eyes twinkling with laughter. He looked relaxed and happy and she grinned back.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the scuffles and battles had died down and Molly and Charles were climbing into the Land Rover, ready to set off on their safari. Archie continued to tease Molly about the dangers of camping in the bush dropping in comments about wandering lion, elephants and hippos, not to mention the snakes lying in wait in her sleeping bag at night.

"Don't listen to him Molly" advised Dawn, a wriggling Euan perched on her hip "Everything will be great, you go and have a lovely time and we'll see you tomorrow afternoon." She waved them off as Charles started the engine and made his way out of the yard.

"So then Dawesy, are you ready for this?" he asked her navigating a large pothole in the track.

"I still think I'm a bloody idiot for agreeing to it" she replied

"You'll love it, I promise" he reached over and squeezed her hand.

"Archie packed loads of beer then?"

"Knowing him he'd take it all out for a joke."

They drove on in silence for few minutes before Molly turned to Charles.

"You seem different here"

"Different how?"

"I dunno, younger maybe?"

"Younger how?"

"Relaxed? More laid back?"

"Are you saying I'm uptight?"

"Maybe we just haven't had a break for a long time, you don't ever switch off like this at home"

Charles sighed. "You think I'm too serious, don't you?"

"Not too serious. Just serious enough" she patted his thigh "I suppose I haven't seen you and Archie together before, I can see the younger you, it's nice. Like I get to go back in time or something"

"Molly, I'm being me" Charles tried to reassure her "Maybe I regress a bit when I'm with Archie. It's hard not to. But I'm still me."

Molly thought for a while, turning her attention out of the window. She watched the landscape pass by, the now familiar sight of thorn trees and red earth. She noticed they were following the same route she had driven in on the day before with Archie.

"Where are we going?" She asked. She had thought they would stay nearby, somewhere that felt a little like home territory, and perhaps would be close enough to get back to the house quickly.

"Archie put me onto somewhere. He says it's a great spot. It will take an hour or so depending on the road. Fancy navigating?" Charles pulled a bundle of papers from the front shelf below the dashboard.

She rifled through the papers "Um, Charles, you ain't got a map"

"No map Dawsey" Charles threw her a wink. "I'm not giving anything away. Those are directions, we need to zero the trip when we get to the gate, just follow what's written there."

Molly looked through the papers on her lap, there were a number of sheets with squiggles denoting road junctions with written directions and mileage counts. She shook her head.

"Anything the matter?"

"Had a lot of time on your hands recently have you?"

"What can I say, those long winter nights needed to be filled somehow"

Molly rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. "Any chance you're gonna let me on on your plans?"

"None whatsoever"

"Seriously?"

Charles drew the vehicle to a stop, he turned to face Molly and gently took her face in his hands. "Relax. Trust me"

"I trust you. I don't see the point in all this cloak and dagger stuff, that's all"

"It's fun"

"For who?"

"Well me of course"

"Bloody numpty"

"Yes, but I'm your bloody numpty. Now, read me those directions"

* * *

An hour and a half later they were still driving. They bumped along a narrow track which followed the line of an escarpment, the road was rough, little more than a rutted track in most parts, narrow and crumbling down the steep hillside in places. With every bump Molly regretted drinking her last cup of tea, as she bounced on an increasingly full bladder.

"Any chance of stopping soon, I'm bursting" she pleaded with Charles

"Can you hold on for a bit longer? I don't much fancy stopping here. How long does it say we stay on this road?" he glanced at the papers on Molly's lap.

"2 kms from the turning, what does the trip say?"

Charles peered at the dashboard "About half a km to go then. Can you hold on?"

She nodded in reply, wincing as the vehicle bumped over another large pothole.

Eventually the road evened out and they found they were crossing a large plain.

"Let me just find a tree for you" said Charles, casting his eye over the wide open area.

"There's no one about for miles. I can't wait for a tree to hide behind, just stop the bleeding car" Molly was unfastening her seatbelt before he could even start to slow down. Drawing to a stop she jumped down from the cab. A couple of minutes later she emerged at the car door, looking more comfortable.

"Better?"

"Much, I don't think I've needed a jimmy so bad"

"Now I need to go as well" Charles climbed down.

Molly was sitting on the bonnet of the Land Rover scanning the plain with her binoculars as he made his way back.

"Got anything?"

"Shit. You made me jump. Nah, not a sausage. Hand gel?" she passed the bottle to him, raising the binoculars to her eyes again. The plain seemed empty, the only sound was the wind whistling past their ears.

"It's like we're the only ones on earth"

"I hope not, we've only got food for 24 hours"

"Come on, just you and me and the zombie apocalypse?" she nudged him with her shoulder.

"It's the stuff dreams are made of, obviously"

"Obviously." Molly jumped down from the bonnet. "Is it much further?"

"Shouldn't be. We're definitely on the right track now."

"Don't look at me, you didn't know what a cattle boma was either."

"True" he dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "Maybe 20 minutes, half an hour"

"Great. I can't wait to get the stove set up, I'm gasping"

* * *

The road continued over the plain, towards a ridge rising out of the horizon. Eventually after climbing a short slope they found themselves at a rudimentary barrier, beside it a small watch post, barely large enough to accommodate a standing man. The noise of the approaching vehicle had brought out the guard who was waiting for them at the gate. Charles pulled up and gave his name, the guard checked him off his list and waved them through.

"Asante" called out Molly, raising her hand to wave.

"Impressive" remarked Charles, earning himself a jab in the ribs for his cheek.

"Stick with me, I've got all the patter"

They drove in for another kilometre or so, eventually pulling up at thatched building with open sides. A tall young man stepped out, a red and white sarong tied low on his hips and secured with a belt, from which hung a small stubby sword. Two strings of beads crossed over his torso from each shoulder to hip, he wore a collar of small colourful beads and his hair was dressed with similar beads. He carried a tray with two welcoming glasses of juice on them, condensation beading on their sides. Molly looked at Charles suspiciously, catching his eye as he turned off the engine.

"What?"

"Funny looking place to camp"

"Oh, did you think we were staying here? Sorry Dawes, no. I'm just dropping something off for Archie and then we'll be on our way."

"I'm getting my juice then before they cotton on to us"

Charles got one of the cool boxes out to the back and passed it to a waiting member of staff. He walked with him through the gateway while Molly made her way towards the waiting man holding out the cool glass of juice.

"Welcome" he said in a soft voice

"Thanks" Molly took a gulp of the cold juice enjoying its sweetness. She looked around where they stood, the land looked dry, grasses turning pale and the only green came from the sparse leaves on the bushes. "Nice gaff you got here mate" she returned her empty glass to the tray. "Let's hope himself can come up with something as nice as this." She got no reply other than a smile as he waved his hand behind him, motioning for her to enter the building. Her curiosity got the better of her and she stepped down into the room. The floor was made of stone, a dining table with six chairs stood in front of her, a small sofa to her right and a bar to her left. Out of the other side she could see more chairs arranged in a circle looking out over a view of low unspoilt hills. The room was deeply shaded and the open sides of the hut caught the breeze, keeping it cool. She couldn't see Charles anywhere and when she turned she realised she was there all alone, her welcoming committee seemed to have vanished as well. All around was peaceful, the only sounds were the rustling of wind through branches and the chatter of birds.

"Ahh, there you are" Charles broke the silence, standing at the entrance. "You ready?"

Molly tore her eyes from the view "Yeah, best get me out of here before I stage a sit in"

"Oh dear"

"Well it's all a bit 'look what you could have won' ain't it Charles?"

"Come on. The guys are going to help us with our stuff, we can leave the car here and walk" he said breezely.

Molly gave a slight huff and followed Charles out of the other side of the hut. The young man who had welcomed her was stood on a path carrying their rucksack. Charles had grabbed their daysack and followed behind Molly.

"I can carry my own kit you know. Feels weird not carrying anything" she grumbled quietly.

They made their way a short distance along the path when it widened and split off to their left, leading to a hut backing onto a hill and balanced on high stilts, a flight of wooden steps leading upwards. Molly watched as their guide turned and made his way up the steps. Stopping she turned to Charles. "Really?" she asked. He looked at her and grinned, putting his arm around her shoulders "You didn't think I'd actually make you go camping did you?"

* * *

After dropping their bags and a quick freshen up they made their way back to the mess area hand in hand. When they arrived lunch was being laid out on the table and they sat in the shade sipping their drinks.

"Promise me you ain't still shitting me. I will actually get to sleep in a bed tonight"

"So suspicious Dawes. Whatever made you this way?"

"Your constant piss taking, that's what. Even now I don't know whether you're stringing me along or being serious"

"Long may it continue"

"A bit of a let up would be good. Anytime you feel a bit bored of it all let me know"

"Alright. I'll let you off, just for the next 24 hours. I promise, no more surprises."

"Ok" Molly looked over the rim of her glass as a cheeky smile broke over his face "what?" She queried.

"Nothing" replied Charles, his grin widening.

"It's got to be something"

"Honestly, it's nothing. Just thinking about something Archie said. Anyway, serious now" he fought to contain the grin, pulling his lips into a neutral line "we need to decide what we want to do when we're here."

"What do you mean?"

Charles flicked through the pages of the camp's brochure "Well, there's horseback safari?"

"Never even ridden a donkey at Margate mate"

"Camel safari?"

"Didn't have them at Margate either"

"Tennis, swimming?"

"Not exactly relaxing"

"Birdwatching?"

"I'm not dead!"

"Ok" said Charles, trying a different tack "anything you do want to do?" He passed a leaflet over, watching her scan through its contents.

"You know what I would like to do?" She lowered the leaflet "go for a walk"

"A walk?"

"Yeah, it's beautiful here, and so far I've spent the last few weeks in trucks or marching mardy arsed squaddies around. I'd just like to take a walk without having to plan a route or get somewhere in time."

"But I thought you were worried about the wildlife?"

"Yeah, but it says here you get an armed guide" she pointed at the leaflet.

"Yeah with a crappy rifle, I've seen street kids in Kabul packing better weaponry than that" he looked dismissively at the photo in the brochure.

"Well let's hope he don't have to use it then" she replied picking up her drink and winking at him.


	9. Chapter 9

They ate lunch in the camp mess enjoying the breeze and the view out over the bush of distant hills, and in the middle distance a small lake. Afterward they were joined by their guide, Moses, a cheerful enthusiastic young man dressed in khaki trousers and a green t shirt bearing the lodge's logo. He assured them that they would be accompanied by a qualified and armed ranger as well as himself and a Samburu tracker and suggested that they set off on their walk mid-afternoon and aim to have sundowners in a spot he knew. Then they could drive back to camp in time for dinner.

Molly stifled a yawn. "Keeping you up?" asked Charles sipping his coffee.

"That's rich coming from a man who sleeps for a week after one measly reserves weekend. I've been on exercise for 4 weeks. I'm knackered"

Charles put down his coffee and checked his watch. "We've got a couple of hours, why don't you take a rest?" Molly fought off another yawn, not wanting to spend her rapidly dwindling time with Charles asleep. "Go on. I'll mooch here for a while, just get your head down" he reached across the low table and stroked the back of her hand.

"Maybe" she replied, "just an hour or so"

* * *

Charles climbed the wooden steps up to their room and sat gently on the edge of the bed, not wanting to wake Molly. She looked peaceful, the soles of her feet dirty, her t shirt riding up over her hip. She had lost weight on exercise, the dark circles under her eyes testament to her exhaustion. He watched the rise and fall of her chest, her hair escaping from its ponytail draped across her neck. His eyes swept down her body, her shoulders, the uneven tan that stopped half way down her arms from a month in the sun, the dip of her waist rising to the swell of her hip. Her knees were scuffed, and an assortment of bruises at various stages of healing peppered her calves. He slowly raised his hand, tentatively stroking her hip and down her thigh, his pulse kicking up slightly at the feel of her warm skin beneath his fingertips. He lightly circled her knee and moved his hand up her thigh again.

"Piss off Charles, I'm trying to sleep"

He started. "Sorry" he whispered, his fingers continuing their journey up and then down her thigh. "You look beautiful lying there"

Molly smiled but remained still, not opening her eyes "You're so smooth"

"Mmmmmm" his fingers feathered underneath the hem of her shorts.

"I mean it."

"Me too"

"Rest you said. Changed your mind?"

"I'll do all the work"

She opened her eyes, he was looking down at her tenderly, his brown eyes sparkling with mischief.

"Bugger off and let me rest"

"Please?" he stuck out his bottom lip and gave her his best hang dog expression.

Molly pushed up from the bed with a sigh and leant close, catching his lips with hers. "Later"

"Come on, it won't take long"

Molly clasped her hands to her chest mocking him "Ahh, the words every woman wants to hear". She shoved at his shoulder as he stood up from the bed "go on, push off"

"Poor me, you don't even want me for my body anymore" Charles made his way towards the bathroom, pulling his t shirt over his head as he went.

"Cheer up love," Molly called out after him "there's still your money"

She heard the shower start and after a few minutes she climbed down from the bed removing her shorts and t shirt. She reached behind to unfasten her bra and wriggled out of her knickers letting them both fall to the floor. Lifting the curtain that separated the bathroom from the bedroom she stood in the doorway watching Charles standing in a rustic looking bathtub, the water running over his head and down his back. Her gaze followed the path of the shampoo bubbles over his shoulders and back, down his bottom and thighs. Despite her teasing him about being an old fart and part time soldier he had kept up his fitness and his physique had hardly changed since she had first known and watched him in Afghan. He was still lean and muscular, just the slightest hint of thickening at the waist, but still nothing spare. He continued to rinse the suds out of his hair, silhouetted against the side of the bathroom which was open to the elements and the view beyond.

"Perving on me now are you?" Charles turned under the water, eyes still shut against the shampoo. "Old habits die hard eh?"

"Just enjoying the view" Molly replied, stepping into the tub. Charles opened his eyes and looked down at her, a wicked grin spreading over his face as he realised she was naked.

"Yes, it's very nice" he replied archly, stepping out from the spray and winding his arm around his waist. "Looks a bit dry though"

"Don't feel it from here"

"Really?" He lowered his head and kissed her lightly as she reached up, pulling him towards her and deepening the kiss. He spun her round, positioning her underneath the shower, using his hand to push her hair back from her face and under the running water. She broke away from him, spluttering as the water got into her eyes. "You trying to drown me?"

"You looked in need of a bit of a wash"

"Clean as a whistle me, you on the other hand are disgusting, look at the colour of the water coming off you" she reached behind him for the soap, lathering it between her hands before slowly spreading the suds over his body. She started at his chest, her hands moving up over his shoulders and down his arms, spreading the lather as she went. She returned her hands to his chest, running them down over his stomach, his abdominals tensing as she moved lower, her fingers gently skimming over the scar on his lower torso. She knelt until she drew level with it, placing a soft kiss against the thin silver line.

"While you're down there" he remarked, struggling to keep still at the sight of Molly kneeling naked in front of him.

"You had to go there didn't you?" Molly looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. She rubbed the soap between her hands, building the lather again before spreading it over his thighs and buttocks. She stood slowly, pressing and dragging her body against his as she went. Charles groaned as her wet body moved over his, her hands trailing up his sides as she stood on tiptoes. "Turn around" she whispered. He braced himself against the wall as she continued to wash his back, her fingers lingering over his shoulders moving down slowly. She wrapped her hands around his body, teasing the line of hair leading down from his navel. Charles' breath was becoming ragged as he fought all his instincts to turn and take her in his arms.

"Molly"

"Hmm"

"I think you've missed a bit."

She put down the soap and reaching across she shut off the taps. Standing on her tiptoes she put her mouth next to his ear, "I'm not touching your feet" she whispered.

She was reaching for a towel when she felt Charles' body press against her back, the hard length of him nudging the top of her hip. He removed the towel from her hands, opening it up and wrapping it across her body, dragging the fabric over her skin as he dried her. He cupped her breasts through the towel massaging them dry as Molly bit her lip and leant back into him, trying to keep her vocalisations to a minimum. She felt the breeze across her back as he stepped away from her, towelling the water from her stomach, his breath warming her skin as he knelt behind her. Catching a drop of water as it made its way down her back, he ran his tongue up her spine, making her shiver. His lips pressed kisses across her lower back as he moved the towel slowly down the front of her thighs. Dropping it to the floor he gently turned her to face him, kissing her hip bones and belly as he ran his hands over her thighs and bum. Molly looked down at his dark head pressed against her belly and felt the heat of her desire spreading out from each spot he kissed. She rested her hands in his hair, entwining her fingers in his curls as she tried to encourage him to go lower and hook a trembling leg over his shoulder. She felt his lips break into a smile "Patience Dawes" he murmured against her skin, changing direction and working his mouth up across her stomach as he stood up slowly. He continued his journey upwards teasing the swell of her breasts and skimming her nipples gently with his thumbs as he reached her collarbone. Suddenly he lifted her and she wrapped her legs around him, rubbing herself against the length of him.

"Steady" he gasped "or it really will be quick" his knees buckling slightly as he made his way towards the bed, tipping her backwards onto the covers as his knees made contact with the mattress.

* * *

They lay together listening to the sound of the wind moving through the reed thatched roof above them. Molly rested her head against Charles' chest as he stroked his fingers slowly up and down her arm.

"So" he started with slight hesitance in his voice "this spot of bother you had on exercise; do you want to tell me about it now?" he asked, his fingertips drawing spirals on her shoulders and down her arm.

Molly let out a long deep sigh considering her next words carefully. Charles continued the gentle movement of his hand up and down her shoulder but kept quiet, waiting to see what the verdict would be. Molly shifted slightly, reaching up she held onto his hand and interlaced her fingers with his.

"Its over and done with now" she said

"Good." he let the words hang in the air before pressing her further. "You said it was some sort of gossip"

She nodded.

"About us?"

"Yes. About Afghan and you and me and Smurf. The same old shit"

"It seemed like more from what you said"

"A bit"

"Like what?"

"You really want to know?"

"Of course I do" he kissed the top of her head "It sounds like it really got to you."

"Oh Charles" she sighed, pulling her hand out of his and placing it over her eyes "Do we have to?"

"Yes, I think we do. It got you riled and I think we should talk about it"

Molly sat up and turned to face him, reaching for his hand again. She looked at their joined hands for a long time and then raised her face and looked at him.

"Remember that 2nd Lieutenant we got earlier this year, Harris?" Charles nodded, this wasn't the first time he had heard about him. "well, I think it came from him. Even if he didn't start it he kept it going. He started spreading it through my unit, we lost cohesion. I thought I'd lost them at one point. And then Harris, well he never passed up a chance to make me feel this small" she gestured with her fingers. "Everything was a dig at me, where I'd come from, how I'd got here, basically riding on your coattails."

Charles could see that she wasn't enjoying talking over this again and he felt briefly guilty for raking it up, but he didn't want her stewing over it either. "Anyone who matters knows that's not right"

"I know, I know" she snapped, her voice taking on an edge of irritation. "I wish I was a nobody, that I wasn't worth their bother"

"That's a terrible thing to say"

"Why? I just do my job. Why should that be anything special?"

"Because you are special. Because you look at life differently, because you poke and prod and question and get under people's skin. You don't accept what you're told. That makes you stubborn and strong and brilliant and it intimidates people who think getting on in life comes from toeing the line."

They sat in silence for a while as Molly absorbed his words. "Why don't you see that Molly?" he asked gently "Why are you always in such a rush to blame yourself?"

"I'm not" she replied a bit too defensively

"Sweetheart, I'm not trying to start a row, I just wish you had more belief in yourself sometimes"

Molly sighed, and turned her attention to their hands again. "Do you know the real difference between you and me?" she glanced up and he shook his head

"All your life you've been surrounded by people telling you that you can do things, that all it takes is your will and effort and you can achieve stuff. All my life I've been told I can't, that I won't get anywhere, so why try." Molly glanced up, she could see the impatience in Charles' eyes and that he was holding himself back from interrupting her. "I'm not saying I believe that anymore, it's just that when things are hard it's easier to listen to that voice, because it's always been there."

"Molly. That voice is bullshit. Stop listening to it"

"I know"

"And you said it's over and done with. How?"

"His attitude was getting him a bit of a reputation, then he made some stupid mistakes on the final exercise so I reckon he was already being looked at by top brass. Then he went and busted his leg and it all came out that he'd been shagging about and I told Zoe about what he'd been saying about me"

"Sounds like he should never have been allowed to pass out."

"Maybe. Zoe's been running about for the last couple of days trying to do some damage limitation"

"I bet she has"

Molly sensed his change in tone and bristled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Charles shrugged "That it doesn't sound like she'd been keeping on top of things"

"That's a bit harsh innit?"

"I know she's your friend, but sometimes she's a bit too keen to be one of the lads. She's a Captain now, she has to realise that it means stepping in early and sorting things out."

"I don't agree. She can't be dealing with every little thing. There's always going to be stuff too small for her to have to get involved in."

"Yes, but this doesn't sound like one of those times"

"Seemed like it at the time though. Once I found out what I was dealing with I tackled things with my unit's attitude, marking their cards, you know. I thought he was just being your standard Rupert arsehole, a few more months and some of it would have been knocked out of him."

Charles wasn't convinced by Molly's reasoning but decided to keep quiet rather than push things. Molly watching him closely, saw the look of doubt pass over his face.

"Don't think you were so perfect mate. I don't remember either you or Eggy stepping in much when I joined the Under-5s"

"Ok, ok" Charles held his hands up in defeat "let's not rake over this one again."

* * *

They were sat on a large smooth rock overlooking a small plain. The plain was mostly open grassy bush land with small thickets of thorny scrub. In the distance were small groups of impala and smaller gazelles. To the west there was a ribbon of greener vegetation, weaving it's way across the valley floor. To the south east, just becoming visible as the dusk drew in was the jagged snow topped peak of Mount Kenya. It seemed to float halfway up the sky, the rest of its bulk blending into the darkening horizon.

Charles drew on his beer and let out a contented sigh. He stroked Molly's arm lightly and she looked back at him, smiling. He felt relaxed as the beer started to hit the spot.

Molly was deeply engrossed in conversation with Moses and had been ever since they had set off that afternoon. Charles had watched her charm the guide with her natural curiosity and enthusiasm, eager to learn about the land and the wildlife. They had walked along the banks of a small river, Molly had initially been hesitant when she saw a group of hippos wallowing in the shallows, but after being reassured that they were unlikely to leave the water she had stood and watched them, remarking that their bad tempered grunting reminded her of the noises that had come out of her parents' bedroom after Dave had been knocking them back at the Earl of Wakefield.

They continued to follow the river walking in single file, their spotter Lesukut showing Molly the pug marks made by predators, highlighting the differences between hyena and lion footprints which had set Molly off on a mission to identify every footprint she could. Lesukut had led them away from the river and across the plain, showing them trees rubbed smooth by elephant and buffalo and had even encouraged Molly to see if she could read the tracks and marks left by a herd of elephant. She had risen to the challenge with her usual enthusiasm, joking with the softly spoken young man that if she could follow a trail of dog shit around East Ham she could work out where a few elephants had got to.

They had ended their afternoon by climbing to their present spot to find the camp's land rover waiting for them, with a cool box of drinks and even chairs and tables laid out. As Moses had poured their drinks Lesukut had touched Molly gently on the arm, beckoning her to follow him. Standing a top a large rock he had pointed across the vlei to the side of a neighbouring hill. Lifting her binoculars Molly saw what he had been pointing at, a group of five elephant were making their way through the thicket, walking up the hill from the direction they had just came. "Charles!" called Molly "Look, I was bleedin right - there they are, my elephants!"

**A/N**

**I wasn't too sure about the rating of this one - I think it's pretty tame so I've kept it at a T, but if you think it should be an M then please either comment or send me a PM and I will re-rate.**


	10. Chapter 10

**For Natalie, selflessly staying sober for the night x**

* * *

"Steady there Dawsey. One step at a time" Charles held onto Molly's waist as he helped her up the steps to their tent. She giggled and stumbled again, leaning into him.

"Jesus Christ on a bike, you're a cheap date tonight" he teased her, not completely sober himself.

"Its the fresh air, numbnut" she replied, giggling again at her excuse.

"Yeah yeah, fresh air and the best part of a bottle of red over dinner"

"It weren't my fault. Moses kept on filling my glass"

He finally made it to the top of the stairs, securing the gate behind them. He had visions of Molly toppling backwards but she continued in her forward momentum eventually coming to a standstill swaying slightly in the middle of their room.

"Here, Charlie" she giggled again and he knew she was more than a little tipsy, she only called him that when she was drunk "Where did the bed go?"

"Come with me you little pisshead" Charles took her hand and led her out to the large balcony. The bed had been moved from the main room of the tent and now stood on the platform. It was covered by a net which rippled in the slight breeze but was otherwise open to the elements. The dark bulk of the hill opposite was silhouetted against a night sky of millions of stars. The Milky Way stretched across the night sky, a slash of pale light arching above them.

Molly started giggling again. "What's so fucking funny now?" asked Charles

Molly bit her lip, trying to suppress the laughter bubbling up inside her. She swayed a little as she tried to focus on Charles' face, squinting slightly. "You do realise that I was doing exactly the same thing three nights ago don't you? I was lying in my sleeping bag looking up at the same view?" the giggles got the better of her as she teased him "Do you get all your romantic tips from the army?"

"Pearls before fucking swine" Charles muttered "Come on, let's get you into bed and see if you enjoy my second rate romantic gesture when you've sobered up some"

"Don't say that Charles, it's lovely. Honestly it's beautiful, just, you know, not the first time this week" she exploded into another fit of giggles as she sat in the bed, Charles leant down to remove her sandals before helping her to her feet and leading her to the bathroom.

"I bloody love you, Charles James" she said squinting at him "I really do"

"Drink this, you pissed bint" he passed her a glass of water "and go brush your teeth"

* * *

Molly was softly snoring, her head bent at an awkward angle as she lay on her side, snuggled deep into the nest of duvets and blankets heaped on top of the bed. Beside her Charles lay awake, staring up at the vast expanse of sky above him. The noises of dusk, the hum of insects and the murmur of frogs had died away, leaving nothing but the sound of the slight breeze moving through leaves and Molly's breath as she lay beside him. His eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness as he turned to look at her, her face soft at rest and her long hair a dark stain across the white bedlinen. He resisted the urge to stroke it from her face, not wanting to wake her, knowing that she needed this rest.

His mind was wide awake and stubbornly refusing to let him turn off and find peace. Unlike Molly the evening's alcohol had only served to kick start his brain. He was aware that they had little more than another 24 hours together before she returned to her unit and he had to get his head into gear to negotiate with the top brass at BATUK. While it would be a little over a week before they were back home in the UK he knew that they would be caught up in the snowballing of everyday life as it hurtled towards Christmas. Mess functions, work parties, end of term, christmas shopping, families. Before they knew it it would all be behind them and a new year would have started and they would have barely drawn breath. Being here should be a moment of calm in the storm, a pause on the treadmill that was daily life. He should take his time to savour the moments they had, not be fretting about what was to come.

He had always loved Christmas and everything that it had entailed, as a child from the moment the calendar flipped over to December he would be gripped by the mounting excitement of every event that brought him closer to the day. School would seem to relax and take a communal breath out, there would be end of term parties, school plays, and then the trunks would appear, the dormitory would descend into the kind of chaos that could only be the result of 10 boys being asked to pack all their belongings into a small box no bigger than a single bed. Then it would be carol service and back home, sometimes via a long flight with the other unaccompanied minors, sometimes back to the magic of the Bath house, festooned with decorations and lit up against the winter gloom. Even as he got older the charm never really died, and then came Sam and a chance to relive the joy and wonder through his son's eyes.

And then there was _this_ Christmas, long awaited, planned meticulously. Everything was right; his ducks finally all lined up, everything perfect and just waiting for him. It was all just still out of reach, waiting, waiting, waiting, time seeming to move slower and slower the closer it drew.

Truth be told Charles James was sick of waiting. It had been a long five years, the longest and at the same time the happiest of his life. A wonderful, gut wrenching, infuriating and amazing five years of euphoric highs and the lowest darkest moments of his life.

Molly stirred next to him, shifting positions and bringing an end to the snoring. She moved closer to him, her bottom rubbing against his legs. He turned, gently pulling her close, she stirred again, her body slotting into its familiar position tucked against his. He relaxed, slowing his breath to match hers, letting his mind drift, thinking of Archie's words that morning and his visit to Belinda and Dave, and the words that had Nan had left him with just a few weeks ago. The time was coming, and for Charles James it couldn't come quickly enough.

* * *

It was dark as he left the pub, the wind had picked up and leaves and litter blew up the street. He made his way in the opposite direction from the Dawes' house, walking down the Barking Road, past the brightly lit windows of the bookies, the colourful display of fruit and veg spilling onto the pavement in front of the supermarket, past the greasy smelling kebab shop and taking a right hand turn up a residential side street. A few hundred yards ahead was a non-descript block of sheltered housing flats, Nan's new home since a stroke had forced her out of the terrace house she'd raised Belinda and Jane in. Charles rang her bell and after a short time the door released to let him in. Nan met him at the flat's door, signalling at him to keep quiet whilst waving him inside. She quietly shut the door and reaching for her stick she turned to face him.

"Why are we being quiet?" asked Charles.

"If Doreen over the way got wind you were here she'd be over quick as you like. She's taken quite a shine to you."

Charles bent his head and kissed her on the cheek "You know I don't like to disappoint my ladies" he gave her a cheeky wink.

"Yeah yeah Mr Smooth" Nan made slow progress down the short hallway to the kitchen. "Talking of smooth, how's your Dad?" She shot him a grin.

"Good. Still married to my mum"

"A girl can dream. Coffee? Naz down the market got some of those capsules in that you like. Half the price of the ones in the shop"

"Go on then" Charles stood in the doorway as Nan busied herself in the tiny kitchenette, slotting the coffee capsule into the machine, a present from Charles after the stroke made it harder to go out for the 'fancy coffees' she liked.

"Go on through" she motioned towards the lounge "I can't be doing with you cluttering the place up"

"So then, how's my favourite wobbly old lady?" Charles called from the neighbouring room.

"Oi, less of the old" Nan shuffled in with the tray, setting it down on the coffee table on top of a pile of magazines. She sat heavily on in her chair, hooking a footrest with her stick and pulling it closer.

"You look a lot stronger on that leg" he remarked.

"I'm doing better, though you wouldn't catch me out in this" she gestured towards the window "Still, I made it to the pub the other night. Next I'm going to do stairs, Dave won't be able to hide out up in that flat anymore."

"Well they do say it's important to have goals for your recovery" Charles remarked with a grin.

"You heard from Molls?"

"Just a quick call at the weekend. They're working her hard out there. Sounds a bit tired"

"When's she back?"

"Three weeks"

"So you going to propose then?"

Charles spluttered into his coffee. "You don't beat about the bush do you?"

"Can't afford to at my time of life."

"What did Belinda tell you?"

"That you came to ask Dave" she gave a snort "Why would you do that when you know full well he'd sell his own mother for a pint and packet of dry roasted?"

"Well, it's the done thing isn't it?"

"There's plenty of reasons in life to do things Charlie lad, 'because it's the done thing' comes pretty close to the bottom."

"So am I supposed to ask you then?"

"No Charles, you're supposed to ask Molly, she's the one to give you an answer, not any of us."

Charles sighed and put down his coffee. There was little doubt where Molly got her single mindedness from.

"She'll say yes. You ain't worried about that are you?"

"No. Or at least I don't think I am. Its all a bit theoretical until the question has actually been asked."

"Come off it boy, she's been married to you in everything but name for years. If anything I'm surprised it's taken so long. What was it, cold feet?"

"Me? Hell no. I've known for years. Probably too many years, it's just never seemed the right time."

"There you go again Charles talking about what's right. You want to stop worrying about that and just start living your life now. Cause if you don't you'll wake up one day and realise its all just passed you by."

Charles was trying not to show his mounting annoyance. It had been a long couple of days in town followed by what seemed to be some fool's errand to visit Nan. He didn't feel much like sitting here justifying himself and being picked over by Molly's family.

"Don't give me that look. I'm not going to try and change your mind, and you wouldn't be much cop if you let me. I just don't understand why you want to do this now. I had me hat picked out three years ago. Then I thought maybe you were going to be all modern and just live over the brush . She's not up the spout is she? Not that there's anything wrong with that, just it would be nice for one of us not to be in the family way when they get hitched."

Charles sat back, running his hands through his hair and looked at the ceiling. He let out a large sigh. "When I first met Molly she was just starting out. She'd barely finished training. She's a very good soldier, but you don't just get handed a gun and then told to get on with it, it takes time and a lot of effort. She needed to find her feet, work out where she wanted to be. I knew that; I probably knew better than she did what lay ahead of her. She needed to do that out of my shadow. She had to go out there and prove herself on deployments, settle into her new unit, have a chance to be herself. In order to do that she had to throw herself into it 100%, she couldn't have any half measures, and that meant that I couldn't make the first claim on her, that had to be the army."

Nan watched him closely. He was obviously reining in his temper, speaking a little too slowly and enunciating his words clearly as if he was trying to explain something to a child. What he was saying sounded well rehearsed, like this wasn't the first time he'd made this justification to someone.

"So I made myself be happy to take second place. I moved closer to her even though I knew it would be unlikely that she'd want to live out for some time. I never put up any defence when she wanted to be away, I knew that's how it works and that if you are spending time worried about how it's all going back home then you aren't giving it everything you need to. I lived in that poxy bloody flat in Guildford putting my life on hold and pretending like it was something I would have chosen to do and that I was happy that I only got to see her every other weekend at best. Eventually she agreed to live out, but like everything with Molly it's baby steps. She gets that funny look and stops talking to you, and then you think 'shit she's going to run'" He glanced across at Nan wondering if she minded the swearing. She just nodded. "When she finally agreed to move in with me I thought it would be the time, but then I thought she'd think I was jumping the gun, that I had never lived with her so I thought I'd give it 6 months, then you got sick and her family needed her. By the time things had settled down again she was going for promotion. I love Molly, and sometimes loving her means stepping back, supporting her and doing what's right for her, not what I want for myself."

"Well, that's all very noble, but it's bollocks. That girl was never gonna run. I don't understand why you youngsters think that life's all got to be about drama. You love someone, you ask them, you marry them. That's when the slog starts. A wedding is just a day."

"She ran before."

"When?"

"When she went to Afghan that second time. It was after Smurf died. I saw her at the funeral and she said she was going. I'd only spoken to her the week before and there was no plans then."

"It was a hard time for her. She was close with Smurf."

"Yes. I thought she was close with me too." he spoke through gritted teeth "But she just decided and off she went. She barely wrote the whole time she was away, not until the end. It was the longest three months of my life. I didn't want to risk it again."

Nan was quiet for a long time. Eventually she spoke.

"Molly didn't always have life so good. Getting out when the going got hard was how she coped, Dave and Belinda tearing strips off each other; she'd sit for hours on my step waiting for me to come home. School got tough; she just stopped going. She never stuck anything out until the Army. I never thought she'd make it, but I think she realised. In the end you stick it out and you get to the other side. Starting over all the time ain't no fun, and she found that out early. She was never going to run from you, not once she'd decided. She might pull away for a bit, but that's not the same as running."

"Now then, I didn't ask you to come to haul you over the coals or test your intentions." Nan shifted in her seat, propping her weight on the armrest as she rummaged in the cushions behind her "Right." she pulled out a cotton hanky, folded over itself into a tiny square. She placed it on her lap and slowly started unwrapping it. It took a while, but after a few fumbles and quite a bit of swearing under her breath she managed to unwrap it. In the nest of cotton sat a thin gold band. "Now this was my mother's. It ain't much, it's probably worth nothing, at least nothing compared with what you can give her, but I wanted Molly to have this." Charles began to speak but Nan silenced him with a wave of her hand "You've probably got something picked out already, and I know this sort of thing ain't the fashion, but you could always sell it and put it towards the cost of the ring or the wedding. I don't want to hear anything else about it. Out of them all Molly is most like my Mum. Strong, don't take no bullshit. She would have loved her. Mind you, there would have been fireworks between them two and no mistake. I thought about giving it to Belinda, but it wouldn't have meant anything to her, Dave would probably hocked it for beer money anyway. No, this was always going to be for my Molly." She lifted the hanky in shaky hands and passed it to Charles. He took it, lifting the ring from its nest. It was small, made for a slender finger, a thin band worn and slightly misshapen to fit its owner. I was dull from years of being hidden away but he could just make out the hallmarks on the inside.

"I don't know what to say. Are you sure about this? Maybe one of the others, Jade or Bella?"

"No. This is for Molly. I'd left it to her in my will. I'm just moving it up few years." Nan sniffed and started searching in her sleeves, pulling out a crumpled tissue she wiped her nose.

"Thank you, that's very generous" Charles.

"Go on with you" Nan dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"I mean it."

"I know you do, you're no good at lying" she grinned at him, signalling the serious part of the conversation was over.

* * *

It started as a raspy croaking noise somewhere in the trees. The croaking grew in volume and tempo until it turned into an shrieking scream that tore through the air. Molly woke with a start, catching the tail end of the screaming, she sat upright, her heart pounding in her chest, a cold sweat breaking out across her skin. The breeze on her skin was cool after the cosy warmth of Charles' body and the downy duvet. Charles shifted in his sleep as Molly slipped from the bed, replacing the covers as best as she could.

She returned from the bathroom and stood at the edge of the balcony sipping her water as she looked out across the dark landscape. She could barely make out anything in the night, the moon had set and the Milky Way was now a faint line slipping towards the horizon. She stood for a while, her ears straining to hear any sound but all was still and quiet. The wind picked up again and she shivered, wrapping her arms around her. Eventually she grew too cold and finishing her water she slipped back under the covers.

"Everything ok?" Charles whispered.

"Fine. Sorry if I woke you"

"You didn't it was that ungodly screaming, any idea what that was?"

"I haven't the foggiest, but I heard it a camp a couple of times. Some kind of animal I think"

Molly snuggled close to Charles, trying to keep her freezing feet away from him.

"Jesus, you're freezing, what were you doing out there?"

"Nothing. Just looking if I could see something, but it's really dark now"

"Come here" Molly lay on her back looking up at the sky, hooking her legs over Charles' thighs as he he spooned around her. He stretched out his long legs searching at the bottom of the bed until he found a hot water bottle that had been kicked away in the night. There was still some warmth in it and he fidgeted until he had moved it up the bed so Molly could slip her toes under it. He wrapped his arm over her and took hold of her hand, idly stroking his fingers over her knuckles.

"I was joking earlier, you know that?"

"Hmm?"

"This is amazing Charles. Being here with you."

"Oh Molly" Charles drew her closer and kissed her temple. The side of her face was wet, and he could taste the saltiness of her tears on his lips.

"What's wrong? You're crying. Is everything ok?"

Molly reached up to wipe her tears away. "Nothing's wrong. Everything about this has been so brilliant, my eyes are just leaking a bit"

Charles chuckled. "I agree. It has been brilliant. I'm sorry we don't do more of this"

"What safaris and that?"

"No, I don't think we can afford to _this _very often, I mean just get away, me and you."

"It's been a bit relentless ain't it?"

"Yep" he kissed her temple "but I'm so proud of you Dawsey."

" I couldn't have done it without you, you know that?"

"Of course you could"

"No. I couldn't. I know I don't say it when you're being all boss man with me"

"No, you normally tell me to fuck off"

"Yeah well, but I'd have given up a long time ago if you weren't pushing me."

"I prefer to call it motivation"

"You say potato..."

Charles held her close and pressed his lips to her temple once again, pleased to register that there were no more tears this time. He yawned and closed his eyes. "Better get some shut eye. Last day of freedom tomorrow."

**Author's notes **

**I've sent Molly and Charles to stay at a real place, somewhere I have wanted to go to for years, but I lack a) the money and b) a thoughtful and romantic partner who would do such a thing.**

**They are staying in a lodge/conservancy called Loisaba Wilderness. One of the draws of Loisaba are their starbeds - beds that are wheeled onto a platform allowing you to sleep out under the stars in luxury and comfort. Loisaba have 2 sites offering this, I've put our lovebirds in, Kiboko starbeds. If you want to see what they look like then you can see some great photos if you google Africa Travel Resource Kiboko starbeds (FanFiction doesn't let you post hyperlinks).**

**Want to know what woke Molly? It was a tree hyrax, they really make a racket, it's very eerie when you don't know what it is. Once again, you're going to have to google it.**


	11. Chapter 11

**I think we all know what's coming…..**

The dawn woke Molly. The gathering light and the calls of the birds in the bush, their twittering, squawking, chattering cries and the low rhythmic cooing of doves. As she opened her eyes she could see that the sky was turning a pale washed out grey. Sitting up she looked across at the hills towards the horizon, low cloud just grazing their peaks. She sat still listening to the pulse of the birdsong ebb and flow as the light grew stronger. In the distance she heard a new sound, a loud, low huffing, like someone struggling to clear their throat. It stopped and was matched by another round of huffing further afield. The sound spoke to something deep within her; an instinct to be on her guard.

She nudged Charles awake with her foot. "Oi, did you hear that? What was it?"

Charles stirred "What was what?"

"Listen" They both waited, straining their ears over the sound of birdsong. Eventually it came, long low barking huffs.

"Lion"

"Really?"

"Yep" Charles started to sit up, but as his bare skin met the cold morning air he thought better of it and lowered himself under the covers again. "Archie told me that it's the males, announcing their territory, you know, telling the ladies they're up and about." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, giving her a cheeky grin.

"Sounds like my dad clearing his lungs first thing in the morning"

"There you go then; similarities are greater than our differences" he winked at her

"I don't see half the ladies of Newham rushing to our balcony to catch an eyeful of dad in his pants, do you?"

"He wishes"

"Mum might welcome the break and all" Molly giggled

They were interrupted by the sound of someone making their way up the steps to their tent. They stopped halfway up. "Hodi" came the call

"Erm, yes?" asked Charles

"You're supposed to say 'karibu'" whispered Molly "Karibu!" she shouted.

The footsteps started up again, and Lesukut came into view holding a tray in his hands"

"Jambo Memsaib" he said "Chai, Kahawa?"

Charles looked blankly at Molly.

"Well I recognised the chai part" she said "I'm bloody gasping" she swung her legs out of bed and took the tray. "Thanks mate, that's great" she gave him a big smile.

* * *

Propped up in bed Charles held Molly as she leant against his chest. His left hand stroked up and down her body as he held his coffee in the other. He couldn't seem to stop touching her. It's not like he wasn't normally demonstrative, but there was something about the past few days that made his body almost unconsciously seek hers out. He wanted to be in physical contact with her all the time. At first he'd thought it was just that he'd missed her in the five weeks she had been away, or that it was the romance of their surroundings, but this morning it had come to him. He needed to touch her, it grounded him, reassured him. When he didn't he was in real danger of blurting everything out. He had everything planned meticulously. The ring, the words, the moment. It would be perfect. Everything would be perfect.

"You're bleedin miles away"

"Eh? What?"

"Don't say what Charles, say pardon" Molly put on the voice she used to mimic his mother. "I was looking at the colour, on them hills"

"What about it?" He looked at the view, the sun was rising behind their tent, its long shadow thrown out in front of them towards the horizon. The hills glowed orange in the reflected sunlight.

"Well, no one likes them orange street lights do they? Always saying what an ugly light they have like you never see a light like it, but look. That's exactly the same colour, and it's all natural."

Charles let out a laugh "only you Dawsey, only you. I don't know anyone else who would look at all this beauty and think of sodium street lighting."

"Stop taking the piss"

"I'm not"

"You are. You're laughing at me"

"Not at you Dawsey, just near you" he dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

"I loved them lights, they reminded me of being in bed when I was a little girl. When them little bleeders came along I would wake up in the middle of the night and it was never dark. I was never scared. They're gone now. Council came and put in new ones, energy efficient they said, but they aren't orange no more. It's not the same. I noticed last time I stayed over mum's"

Charles angled his head down so he could look at her face. He couldn't work out whether she was teasing him or was being serious. He eyes were gazing far off towards the horizon and she had a wistful expression on her face.

"Everything alright with you Dawsey?" he asked, not sure where the conversation was going. "Did you get a bit too much sun yesterday?"

"Course. I'm fine"

"What's brought on this philosophical tone? Don't tell me you're worried about the carbon footprint of Newham Council"

"I dunno. Just thinking really. Nothing stays the same does it? It's always changing, and sometimes you don't realise there's something you're gonna miss til it's not there."

Charles was growing concerned by Molly's tone. He couldn't fathom what she was trying to say, or whether she was making any sort of point at all. Was she trying to communicate something to him? She wasn't the sort of woman to play mind games, something he was usually grateful for, but now he was worried he'd missed something.

"What are you saying?"

"That the orange looked like what streetlights used to be and that they ain't there anymore. Wasn't you listening?"

Charles shook his head and chuckled with relief. Molly, leaning up against his chest felt the vibrations and looked up.

"What did you think I was talking about?"

"I didn't have a fucking clue. I thought there was something wrong. Like you weren't happy or something."

"I was talking about streetlights Charles. Streetlights. I ain't clever enough to dress one idea up as another you know"

"Yes you are. But I like that you don't." He kissed her temple, his arm resuming its soft path up and down her skin.

That sat in silence for minutes, both watching the light growing across the view before them.

Molly was the first speak. "I can't for the life of me think what we should get your mum for Christmas"

Charles groaned "No Molly, lets not talk about that."

"But you love Christmas..."

"...and I fucking hate Christmas shopping. Besides, I don't want to be thinking about all that just yet, and not here"

"But it's nearly December, it's your busiest time of the year, and I'll be the lumped with doing it all as usual. Mine's easy, bottle of Baileys and she's happy, but everything I get for your mum, ...well, she's gonna have to work on her poker face a bit, if you know what I mean."

"Molly, she loves you. She does that to everyone."

"Don't make it easier to take." Molly grumbled

"Look, get her some John Lewis vouchers, my dad is happy with a bottle of single malt so I'll pick something up duty free next week. Job done. If you want difficult try thinking up something for Sam."

"Tub of E45 and a box of mansize tissues should do it if my brothers are anything to go by" Molly smirked.

"Molly!"

"Like you were any better at 13?"

Charles blushed "Let's not go there, especially as we're back with Archie tonight. I don't know why I was so keen to get you two together. It's like grist to your piss taking mill"

"Look, I'll ask Liam, see what he reckons 13 year olds want, but I expect he'll say the same. Any point in looking at xboxes or that?

"The last thing that kid needs is to be holed up in his room all day, sat on his arse and twiddling his thumbs. Kids need to be out and about, fresh air and exercise. Teenage boys especially."

Molly rolled her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

"When I was his age it was cross country runs every morning, rugby every afternoon.."

"And stealing wank mags off the fifth formers every night, yeah Archie told me" Molly interrupted. "Look, he's gonna do stuff you don't like and make choices you don't agree with. He's a good kid with a decent brain and he can stand up for himself. He'll be fine. A few years squeezing his spots and playing with himself in his bedroom is normal, you kicking against that ain't gonna help."

Charles pulled her close, laughing at her outburst. "I'm an old bastard aren't I?"

"Yeah" she stroked his thigh under the covers, "but you'll do for me"

He grinned broadly, his heart so full of happiness it was brimming over. He could feel it bubbling up inside him, ready to burst out. Had anyone told him five years ago, in those dark times after the incident on the bridge and resigning his commission that he would be here, with her and on the verge of all he ever wanted he wouldn't have believed them.

Molly elbowed him in the ribs "You better have got me something good for Christmas"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll like it" the grin on his face not getting any smaller.

"Gonna give me a hint?"

"Nope"

"Go on. Just a little one"

"No"

"Please?"

"Absolutely not."

"Is it safe for company?"

"You're never going to let me live that one down are you?" Charles blushed remembering the fateful Christmas morning when he'd got Molly's presents mixed up and she'd unwrapped a sex toy in front of her whole family instead of the jewellery box he had left at home. "Yes, it's safe for company. I learned my lesson there"

"Is it something I can wear?" she continued to press him for details, her excitement palpable.

"I'm not saying anything. Save your energy"

"I'm sure I have ways of making you talk" she reached beneath the covers once more, stroking the length of him but spoiling the seductive action by giggling loudly.

Charles took hold of her wandering hand, "Uh-uh Dawes. Violating me won't work, though you're welcome to try, see how long I can hold out."

Molly sat up in the bed and faced him. She moved to straddle his lap, leaning in close, her lip hovering against his ear. "Top up?" she whispered before sitting back on his lap and waggling her cup in front of his face.

"Well if that's the best you can do Dawes I'm pretty sure the secret is safe" the slightest hint of a pout came over his lips.

"We'll see" Molly glanced over her shoulder as she climbed from the bed, a broad grin lighting up her features.

* * *

Charles watched her pouring the tea, she tucked her hair behind her ear, adding a splash of milk, and a spoon of sugar to the cup and giving it a quick stir. She poured his coffee next, black, no sugar, years of army life meant that he didn't embellish drinks unnecessarily. She looked up, her eyes catching his.

"You're gonna give me a complex"

"What, can't I admire you now?"

"When I'm dolled up, yeah. But now," she glanced down "dressed in your t shirt, no make up and god knows what my hair looks like. I must look a right state"

"You look wonderful."

"You might wanna get your eyes tested, old man"

"I have perfect vision"

"Must be your head then" She passed the coffee over and perched on the edge of the bed, sipping her tea.

"I've been thinking"

Charles sucked air through his teeth, shaking his head "sounds dangerous"

"That weren't funny 5 years ago, and it's not getting any funnier"

"Force of habit. Go on"

"Well, we're pretty settled and that. We got the house, Sam seems happy, we've been talking about one of our own for a bit now"

Charles sat forward, he grasped Molly's hand, grinning at her, his eyes shone with happiness. "Are you saying we're going to start trying?"

"Woah there. Back up a bit. Let me finish what I was gonna say" Molly drew a deep breath in "what I was gonna say is that I think we ought to make this proper. You know, by the book"

Charles was silent. His thumb frozen, poised over her knuckles, hovering, not making contact with her skin. She heard the breath leave his lungs as he slowly exhaled. "What are you saying Molly?"

She watched him, the colour had drained from his face giving him a grey pallor. The exuberance of moments ago extinguished almost instantly. A knot of anxiety took up residence in Molly's stomach. She hadn't thought that Charles would be anything other than happy to make the next step in their relationship, but the look on his face suggested otherwise. He looked panicked, his eyes darting like he was looking for somewhere to run. Molly took a deep breath, squashing the anxiety down and focussing on getting the next words to come out of her mouth to be the right ones.

"I think we should get married Charles. I can see that after Rebecca you might not want to get married again, and I know we've been going on these years happy as we are, but there's something about having a kid together makes me want to do it right. I want it to be you and me, all proper and above board. I ain't Rebecca, I'm not gonna put those demands on you, I want us to do this together. Show the world we're a unit." He stayed silent, the colour started to return to his face and she could tell from his breathing that he was trying to get some kind of control on himself. She swallowed, her mouth dry and the lump of anxiety building again. Reaching out she grasped his hand in hers "Say something. Please?"

"Oh Molly" his voice was low, barely more than a whisper.

"Shit" she muttered quietly, mentally kicking herself for misreading the situation. "Think about it, you don't need to say anything now" she frantically tried to think of a way to cushion the blow, to make light of what she had just said. She knew the genie was out of the bottle and it wasn't going back in.

He pulled his hands away, scrubbing them over his face and then nervously rubbing one over the back of his neck. Molly's heart was racing, she fought her instinct to run, to lock herself away, there was nowhere to go and she knew that this conversation had to run its course, however horrible it was becoming in her imagination.

It was probably less than a minute before he spoke, but to Molly it seemed like an age. "Your bloody Nan is going to be insufferable"

"You what?"

He sighed again, sitting back against the headboard of the bed, turning his eyes upwards.

"I'm never going to get the better of you am I?" He glanced at her taking in her worried expression, the way she bit her bottom lip. Reaching out he took her tea and placed it next to his cup on the bedside table, then he pulled her against him. Molly relaxed a little, feeling reassured that his reaction wasn't as terrible as it could have been, but still unsure of where they were.

"I have been waiting to ask you Molly. I've been waiting for months. You've gone and jumped the gun on me again."

Molly pushed back from him, looking up at him, a grin spreading over her face "really?"

"Yes, really."

"Does that mean yes?"

"I suppose it does" he winked at her, watching her smile grow even larger.

"You could be a bit more enthusiastic." she teased.

"You've stolen my thunder. I think I'm entitled to feel put out"

"Seriously, you're gonna sulk about this?"

"Not if you can think of a way to make it up to me" he leant in for kiss, but Molly pulled away.

"Hold on. What did you say about my Nan"

Charles pulled her body against his and leant in for his kiss. "I really don't want to be thinking about your Nan right now" he murmured as he wove his hands into her hair, pulling her lips against his.

* * *

Molly couldn't keep the smile off her face as she lay in the crumpled bedsheets, the warm breeze of the morning gently caressing her naked skin. She propped herself onto her elbows searching Charles' face as she spoke.

"So then, tell me about this big proposal you had planned. I bet it was something dead corny like the ring in a bauble on the Christmas tree." she sniggered "or dropped in a glass of champagne. Or buried in the Christmas pudding."

Charles blushed slightly, and she knew she had hit on something close to the truth. "Or was it gonna be the full down on one knee in front of all your family on Christmas day?" she sat upright "God, don't tell me it was going to be in front of my family. I would never hear the end of it from them buggers"

"No point in telling you now is there?" he tried not to look put out but Molly could detect a pout that she suspected wasn't all just for effect.

"Don't tell me you're in a strop about all this"

He reached up, tucking her hair behind her ear and cupping her cheek gently "How can I be in a strop about getting everything I've ever wanted?" His thumb moved slowly over her cheekbone as he took his time to fix the sight of her in his mind. "If I'm honest, I still would have liked to have asked you, although in light of what you just said I might have to, ahem, amend some of my plans"

"Well then do it"

"Now?"

"Why not?"

He toyed with the loose curls tumbling over her shoulders "There's no point" he shrugged.

"Course there is. You can still have your big moment, you just know I'm gonna say yes"

Charles thought for a while "I'll make you a deal"

"What?"

"I'll still ask, but not now. At Christmas like I planned, but you've got to promise me that you won't take the piss"

Molly considered his offer for a short time, "Not even a little?"

"Not even the teeniest tiniest amount"

"I dunno if I can keep that promise"

"There's a ring in it for you if you do" he grinned at her

"It had better be some massive great rock if I can't take the piss out of you all Christmas. Its the highlight of my year."

"What's one year out of the rest of our lives, Mrs James?"

"Oi, that's Corporal James to you"

"Could be Lieutenant James" Charles raised his eyebrows

"Sergeant James, maybe, but I'm no Rupert. It's time a proper soldier joined the James family."


	12. Chapter 12

Zoe sat at her desk and stretched. She wasn't sure how this much admin could even be generated when most of the camp was away but somehow over the course of 3 days her inbox had filled up with emails, their little red flags all vying for attention.

She winced as the stretch niggled a pulled muscle in her side. It had been an energetic few days, not to mention nights. She smiled to herself, Fingers had lived up to her expectations. They had spent their R&amp;R as part of a small group trekking on the slopes of Mt Kenya, then abseiling down waterfalls and gorge jumping. She was pretty sure that wasn't how she had managed to pull a muscle, but she had the perfect alibi.

She was pulled from her daydreams by a cough and tapping on the canvas entrance to her tent.

"Boss?"

Molly stood in the doorway, her kit bag at her feet. Her hair was in her customary plait, her face a little more tanned than a few days ago, the smattering of freckles on her nose a little darker. Her eyes were shining and she looked happier and more relaxed than she had been for weeks.

"Ahh, you're back Dawes." Zoe glanced down at Molly's uniform. It was spotlessly clean and looked like it had been ironed to within an inch of its life. "Wow, you look spiffy, please don't tell me you spent all of your R&amp;R doing laundry."

Molly giggled and looked down at herself. "Archie's house girl got hold of my kit bag and took it upon herself to clean and iron it all. I was mortified when I found out. I was hoping no one would notice"

"You look like you've just passed out."

"They're going to rip the piss aren't they?"

"No mercy." She grinned. "Anyway, did you have a good time?"

Molly couldn't keep the grin from her face. "Amazing. Although I'm not sure I liked all the secrecy between you and Charles."

"Come off it Molly, I only had to make sure you got away. You wouldn't want me to spoil the surprise, surely?"

"A bit of a heads up would have been good"

Zoe laughed. "And how would I have done that exactly? _Have a lovely R&amp;R Dawes, and by the way Charles will be there to surprise you_? It would have ruined it don't you think?"

"No"

"Molly, we're your friends which means that from time to time we like to mess with your head for our own amusement. I take it everything was good in the end?"

"Yeah, we got away, just one night. He took me to this amazing place, we slept out under the stars..."

"Err, haven't you just spent the last week doing that?"

"Well yeah, but this place had a proper bed and a bloke brought us tea in the morning."

"Yeah, that does sound like an improvement on being on exercise."

"We were out in the wilderness, I saw elephants. We watched the sun rise together."

"Spare me, Molly. I'm about to lose my lunch"

"And I asked him to marry me."

Zoe's face broke into a huge smile as she rose from her desk, rushing to hug her friend "oh my god, congratulations. I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks" Molly was beaming as she pulled away. "Hang on, I didn't say he said yes"

"Nonsense," she waved her hand dismissively "of course he did. To be honest I'm amazed he didn't ask you years ago."

"Well, I kinda ruined his plans. He was working up to some big proposal at Christmas, you know what a sucker he is about that sort of stuff. He'd even gone and asked my dad's permission as if he gets a bleeding say in it. We were just there, and it felt right so I asked him. He was pretty hacked off, but he forgave me in the end."

"I'm sure he did" Zoe waggled her eyebrows "lots of making up, eh?"

Molly giggled. "A fair bit, yeah"

Zoe grinned. "I'm really pleased for you both. You're going to make a disgustingly happy couple."

"Dare I ask how your break was?" Molly tentatively enquired of her friend.

"Satisfactory." replied Zoe. "Very satisfactory indeed" she winked at Molly

"Oh god, I suppose I asked." she shuddered in discomfort. "It's like finding out your brother has sex, I mean you know they probably do, but you don't wanna think about it."

"Ugh. I don't want to think about my brother having sex. It's bad enough wondering how he gets his fat arse into a tank, but imaging all sweaty and slobbering over poor Cecile, yuck" Zoe moved over to her desk, locking down the screen of her laptop.

"So all ok here then?" Molly asked

"Seems to be. Just the usual shit load of paperwork and debriefings to get through.

"Any news on Harris?"

"Repatriated to the UK two days ago. I've heard he's stable but might need some more work on his leg."

"And everything here? Is that all looking ok?"

"By all accounts Aston kept her head down and her trap shut over the break, still getting the odd clarification request from the Major, and I expect we'll revisit it all over again when we get back, but it seems in hand for now"

"Ok, well I'll just dump my stuff and check in with the lads then. See what sort of trouble Jonesy got into in the last couple of days. He had a face like a wet weekend when I saw him last" Molly swung her kit bag over her shoulder and stood to attention.

"Yeah" Zoe dismissed her "check back 19:30 hours, briefing for tomorrow, ok?"

"Boss"

Zoe watched Molly leave, and sighing she returned to her seat, flicking on her laptop screen and returning to her e mails.

* * *

There was a rustling of canvas behind her. Zoe didn't look up.

"I don't want to hear anything else about how perfect Charles is, Molly."

"He was a pretty good boss, but he never really floated my boat" came a deep mancunian voice behind her.

Zoe spun around and looked into a pair of blue eyes smiling down at her. Fingers stood close, his tall body leaning towards her. Her breath caught as she turned her face upwards, meeting his gaze. His eyes were smiling, teasing her.

"I take it Molly had a good break?" He spoke in a low murmur, his body still close to hers. He made no move towards or away from her, simply standing in her personal space.

Zoe's body leant towards him moving of its own accord. She caught herself at the last moment, breaking eye contact and stepping back from him. She cleared her throat. "I think it's best if you hear it direct from Dawes. Anyway Corporal Fletcher, was there something I could do for you?" She cringed inwardly as soon as the words left her mouth.

He grinned "Plenty. We hardly got started, after all"

"I mean, _Corporal, _what are you doing here?"

"Major Johnson wanted to know if you would join him for dinner at the officers' table this evening. I think he wants to apologise for Gangy's behaviour the other day on exercise."

"Major who?"

"Johnson. Poor bastard saddled with that title. I bet he can't wait for his promotion to come in."

Zoe burst out laughing and visibly relaxed, caught up in the banter that had flowed so easily between them over the last few days.

"Between you and me," continued Fingers "I think he's found out who you are and has decided it would be best for his career if he grovelled a little"

"I bet he did" she grumbled.

"Cheer up, you got to see me again, so it's not all bad" he grinned.

"And why is that after what we agreed? This weekend only."

"Hmm, I don't know if I agreed to anything" he stepped closer to her again.

"I don't do second rounds, I told you" replied Zoe. She was starting to feel flustered under his gaze which never seemed to leave her. She didn't do flustered. She was losing control of this situation.

He stepped closer, forcing her to look up. His shirt brushed against her chest and she held her breath to stop from gasping. This was not how these things were meant to pan out. It was a bit of fun and then everyone went their separate ways.

"I'm just here to deliver a message love. I'm not even touching you"

That was true. He hadn't touched her or made any kind of move. He raised his hand as if to brush her cheek, his fingers hovering multimeters from her face. Zoe watched it, willing him to be the first to break their unsaid agreement.

"Are you sure you've had all you wanted?" He whispered, his deep voice seemed to vibrate inside her, setting off exactly the sort of reaction she was trying so hard to avoid.

Zoe looked into his eyes, they were full of desire. She remembered them looking deeply into her own just hours ago as she had moved on top of him. His hands on her hips, directing her movement. Slowing her from the fast pace she had thought she wanted, to a languid, almost tender tempo. He had held her gaze then, his strokes rising to meet her, whispering gently with his mouth against hers.

Zoe swallowed, unable to break his gaze. She nodded, not trusting her voice to answer him. "Shame" he muttered dropping his hand to his side "just imagine how it could be if we had a room with a proper bed and everything."

She rose to the bait "You mean there's more?" mock sarcasm ringing in her words.

"I've hardly started" he replied, shifting ever so slightly closer. He lightly trailed his fingers over her lips, gently teasing. Her eyelids fluttered as she let out a long sigh, her breath warming his fingertips.

"You might want to save it for the next one" she replied.

"She's going to have to be something else after you" he brought his other hand up to her face, weaving his fingers into her hair as his thumbs continued to trace her lips. He lowered his head towards her and whispered in her ear. "I can still feel you around me."

Zoe stifled a groan. He was becoming harder to resist, and he knew it. Cocky bastard.

::::::::::::

Fingers was worried he was losing his touch. By now most women would have given in. He hadn't banked on Zoe sticking to her guns. Usually a little bad boy charm, a few dirty words and their knickers dropped. That's how he had operated so far. Molly had made it very clear that her Captain liked the hunt, and he had been a willing prey. He hadn't expected to like her as much as he did. She had thrown herself into all the group activities,she had mucked in and never once expected anything to fall in her lap because of her rank. The lads had thought she was a good laugh, most of them had been trying their hardest to chat her up or find a way to proposition her that wouldn't land them on a charge. She'd shrugged them off with ease. At night, back in the quiet of the camp it had been the two of them, long nights exploring each other before she kicked him out in the early hours.

Except last night. The long days and nights had caught up with them and they had both fallen asleep tangled in each other. He had woken with her pressed against him, her blonde hair spreading over his shoulder. He watched her sleeping by the glow of the camp's security lights. Her face softened, her eyelashes resting on her cheeks. His gut twisted at the thought of this being their last time together, he stroked her body gently, slowly waking her. He wanted to take his time, to savour his last moments with her, to give himself a lasting memory.

He'd got caught up in the moment, as she finally got the message and rode him slowly, he'd looked into her eyes, his lips against hers, muttering god knows against her quiet gasps. When she came apart around him he had kissed her deeply, to quieten their cries of release. God, he'd love to get her somewhere where she could let go, she would be amazing.

When his captain had mentioned that the major wanted her to have dinner at the officers table that night he'd volunteered to take the message to her, he couldn't keep away. Now, as he gently held her face in his hands he was silently willing her to give him some kind of sign. Just one more bite of the cherry, that's all he needed to get her out of his head.

Her breath came in small gasps against his cheek as he whispered in her ear. He could feel the heat coming from her body, so close to his. He brushed his lips lightly across her temple, soft kisses against her eyelids as they fluttered closed. Still she made no move towards him.

He drew back slightly to look at her. Her eyes were closed, her face flushed and she was biting her lip, battling against herself. _Nearly there _he thought. He moved his hands from her face down, over her shoulders. His fingers stroked the swell of her breasts and she moaned quietly. _Now._

"Rob" she whispered, her eyes opening. He gave the slightest self-satisfied grin as he brought his mouth to hers, kissing her deeply. She was ready for him, kissing him back forcefully, pulling his shirt from his trousers, her hands moving up his torso.

Their hands moved over each other greedily, the restraint of moments ago long gone. He pulled her close and she undulated her body against him.

Backing away slightly, his hands moved to her belt, loosening her trousers. She continued to undulate against his hand. He could feel the heat coming from her, dampness spreading against the front of her knickers. She had really been holding out on him, her body couldn't lie.

He drew back, breaking off their kiss. Spinning her around, he braced her hands against the desk and pressed himself against her back. His right hand returned to her trousers, his fingers burrowing under the fabric of her knickers to the slick wetness underneath. His left hand made it's way underneath her t shirt, lightly pinching her nipple through the fabric of her bra. She moaned quietly, pressing her bottom against his erection.

"There, you see, no need to hold out on me" he muttered into her ear. "All you need to do is ask". He kissed the side of her neck. Dropping his left arm so it caught around her waist he burrowed two fingers inside her, his thumb making wide circles around her clitoris, teasing her.

She moaned as his fingers moved inside her faster and faster, her hand came up to grasp the back of his neck struggling to hold onto his short hair. She turned her face to his kissing him as best she could at such an awkward angle as he moved his thumb over her quickly. She came suddenly, and he continued to move his fingers inside her prolonging it as long as he could. Eventually she put her hand over his, stilling the movement. She stayed like that for a moment, her breath slowly returning to normal.

"Fuck" she said quietly to herself.

"Sorry love, I've got to get back. Another time maybe" she turned to face him, he was grinning down at her. He leant down to kiss her slowly, she could still feel him hard against her hip.

"Are you sure about that soldier?" She asked, glancing down.

"Always leave them wanting more" he gave her a wink.

"You're going to do yourself an injury."

"I'll cope."

"You sure?" she made to pull him closer but he backed away.

"I can't stay. I've got to get my lot sorted before tomorrow." He kissed her gently. "If you change your mind I'm sure you can work out how to get hold of me" he held his hand against her cheek, taking one last long look at her before turning to leave.

**A/N**

**I would like to thank everyone who read, reviewed and PM'd me. Thank you so much for your words, they really do mean so much, and thanks to you all for your patience with the erratic upload schedule.**

**Also thanks to the Mumsnetters and Facebookers for their entertainment. Honourable mention to jenmc for her beta reading duties, encouragement and occasional kicks up the arse. And a very special thank you to CBeebies for providing the hours of distraction which enabled me to write.**


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